Forgery: We never altered Senate Rules – National Assembly Clerks

A former Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, and the Acting Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly‎, Benedict Efeturi, have disclosed that the bureaucracy of the National Assembly did not alter the Senate Standing Rules.
This contradicts the position of the Senate on Sunday‎ that the Rules of a new Senate are provided by the National Assembly bureaucracy.
The position of the Senate gave the impression that the 2015 Senate Standing Rules was generated by the bureaucracy of the National Assembly.
This has been so since 1999.
Usually after the inauguration of the Senate, if Senators have objections to any part of the Rules, they can follow the procedure for changing it.
But in an hand written statement made to the Nigeria Police by Maikas‎uwa and Efeturi, which was cited by our correspondent, both officers claimed it was not their responsibility to amend the Senate Standing Rules.
They made the statement last year when they were invited by the Nigeria Police over the allegation of the forgery of the Senate’s Standing Rules raised by aggrieved senators, who belong to the “Unity Forum”.
According to Maikasuwa: “The Senate Standing Orders used in the Seventh Senate was not known to me. The Clerk of the Senate is in position to know. I was not aware of the amendment that was made to the Standing rules.”
In the hand written statement by the Acting Deputy Clerk, he said the Senate leadership handed to him the 2015 Standing Rules as amended by their convention and practice.
According to Efeturi: “The Senate Leadership handed the 2015 standing rules as amended by their convention and practice. Standing Orders 2003, 2007, and 2011 followed similar practice.‎