Wednesday’s plenary at the Senate snowballed into anger and shouting match as the controversial Tax Reform Bill surfaced for debate despite not being captured on the Order Paper.
Trouble started when the Senate Leader, Michael Bamidele Opeyemi invoked Order 12(1) suspending the Senate Rules to allow the Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service to give clarification on Tax Reform Bill.
The Senate Leader’s submission was corroborated by Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, who presided over the session. It was approved that the FIRS chairman and other tax experts be allowed into the Senate chamber by the Sergeant-At-Arms.
This immediately aroused Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume’s anger, as he drew the attention of the senators to relevant provisions in the Senate Rules.
Ndume argued that visitors, such as the FIRS delegation, are forbidden to speak in the chamber if their subject matter was not captured on the Order Paper for legislative debate.
Ndume insisted that the matter was too important to be manipulated and the Senate should not in any way play around the Tax Reform Bill as Nigerians have spoken
