The Senate has described as misplaced, a comment credited to a chieftain of the Labour Party, Prof Pat Utomi, over the red chamber’s decision to stop the planned increase of electricity tariffs which would further increase the suffering of the masses.
The Senate’s position was contained in a statement issued yesterday by the Chairman of the Media and Publicity Committee of the Senate, Yemi Adaramodu.
Part of the statement read, “The Senate is alarmed at the insidious misinterpretation enunciated by some political surrealists, who always leave the causes of their troubles to look for unnecessary scapegoats.
“The personal tirades and character assaults hauled at the Senate President by Professor Pat Utomi, are misdirected and uncalled for.
“Insinuating that the President of the Senate, His Excellency, Godswill Akpabio, was mocking the Nigerian masses with the phrase ‘Let the poor breathe’, is dressing falsehood and mischief in an undesirable garment.
“The Senate is an assembly of distinguished men and women, who are sent by the Nigerian public to the Hallowed Chamber to represent their interests. The public-interest motion to halt an increase in the electricity tariff for Nigerians is one such instance that tests the Senatorial responsiveness of distinguished members of the 10th Senate.
“With the fire of the fuel subsidy removal still smouldering, the Senate opined that any increase in electricity tariff would be suffocating and that whoever is desirous of doing so should allow the poor; all Nigerians to breathe.
“The Senate President compassionately hit the gavel with a stoic warning that any such attempts would be obnoxious, ludicrous, and could only seize oxygen from the reach of the masses. Despite this open display of patriotism and sensitivity, some political irredentists and turncoats feel they could turn the omnipotent actuality on its head to gain their lost momentum.
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“The Senate didn’t and would not mock the masses, without who, there would be no Nigerian Senate. Who, digging into extreme partisanship to impugn the image of the Senate and particularly the personality of the Senate President, is quite unfortunate and an exhibition of political superficialism, irreverent and opprobrious outburst?
“We believe that whoever is in the court to pursue a self-awarded electoral victory should not labour to assume that running expletives on the Senate and its leadership is the needed elixir to infuse legal blood into the dry veins of their case.
“The 10th Senate, under the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, has passed many life support resolutions in its short span, including the misinterpreted Senate’s No to Increase in Electricity Tariff.
“We thus advise political rolling stones and pretenders not to play politics with the lives of Nigerians and allow the National Assembly to join hands with other arms of government to pull out Nigeria from economic morass and make life more abundant for us all,” the statement concluded.
Meanwhile, the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District, Orji Kalu, has appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to shelve its planned strike over the hardship being experienced by Nigerians as a result of the oil subsidy removal.
Kalu stated this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja.
He said, “I sincerely appeal to the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) not to ridicule the economy with their proposed strike. It is a difficult time for all Nigerians, both the rich and the poor.
“I am an employer of labour and I know that things are difficult. Even the President knows that things are difficult. I implore the NLC to give the new government some time.
“The government is working hard to revive the economy and the NLC should not further destroy the economy by going on strike.
Let’s please exercise some patience with the new government.”
