As the immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, was Tuesday morning elected as the President of the 10th Senate, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has expressed doubts that Nigerians may witness a robust independent minded and pro-people national legislature.

The rights group is predicted that the current session of the National Assembly, with these handpicked candidates of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu imposed on the Senators and House of Representatives members, will be just as docile, and a rubber stamp legislature just like the 9th Session of the National Assembly headed by Ahmed Lawan.

The group said it was unfortunate that the ruling party has created the impression that the Senators and Members of the House of Representatives were persons of very low integrity whose consciences can be bought by either money or political patronage to do the bidding of the President which, it added, “is antithetical to the fundamentals of constitutional democracy.”

HURIWA accused the executive arm of government of arm twisting the legislators to accept the docile leadership that the executive had all the while prepared for the 10th session of the National Assembly. "We are shocked by the amount of interest and the high levels of threats and intimidation that the few Senators who dissented from the mainstream position of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the leadership composition in the National Assembly were subjected to, including the attempted deployment of armed law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies against them just so they can step down for Akpabio who, incidentally, has been accused by the EFCC of financial indiscretion as Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.

Specifically, it has been reported that Mr. Akpabio defeated a former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, to emerge as the Senate President in an election held in Abuja on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Akpabio scored 63 votes while Yari scored 46 votes.

HURIWA whilst reacting to the emergence of Akpabio as Senate President and Tajudeen Abbas as Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives of the 10th Session of the National Assembly, stated that both persons, including their deputies, were handpicked by the President who is the Head of the executive arm of government and “therefore it is almost impossible for such a hierarchy to provide a robust kind of legislative activities or would they be capable or willing to provide oversight functions over the executive and judicial arm of government in the current dispensation.”

The group has charged Nigerians to be vigilant and to defend the integrity of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy that Nigerians have all embraced.

The statement added: "The processes that threw up the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives smacks of executive interferences and as far as rational-minded people are concerned; the National Assembly is already hijacked by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and unless a miracle happens, the interests of the people of Nigeria who are the real owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria, won't be protected because the President who fixed Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas as heads of Senate and House of Representatives, already has his secret plot that he intends to achieve and these are all about himself and his political dynasty. Nigerians must be ready to fight for their rights."

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