Talk less to the press, Lawan cautions colleagues

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has admonished fellow senators to talk less to the press to avoid controversies.

Lawan, who gave the admonition at the beginning of plenary, Wednesday, encouraged his colleagues to discuss among themselves if they felt dissatisfied with what is happening either within the country or in the chamber.

Lawan’s admonition was in reaction to the complaints by Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, who faulted the interview granted by the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe on Channels Television,Tuesday evening.

Omo-Agege claimed under a point of order that Abaribe in the interview breached his privilege as a senator.

He claimed that Abaribe alleged that the All Progressives Congress senators conspired to shortchange the host communities when the Senate passed the Petroleum Industry Bill.

The DSP clarified that there was no time the APC senators conspired to reduce the five per cent equity share approved for the host communities in the joint committee’s report to three per cent.

He said, “Abaribe’s comment that it was an APC party decision to reduce the allotted 5 per cent raised at the plenary for Niger Delta host communities to 3 per cent, is completely and utterly false.

“There was no instance where the APC caucus met and took a decision that the people of the host communities have their allotted percentage of the bill budget reduced.”

Omo- Agege said he felt extremely offended by Abaribe’s comments and speaks for himself as well as members of APC within the party,” he added.