Senate concludes business session, fixes date for valedictory

The 8th Senate on Thursday concluded its business session and adjourned till June 6 for valedictory, to mark the end of the session.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary, made the announcement at the end of the day’s session.

In his remarks, Ekweremadu thanked the lawmakers for contributing immensely to the success of the 8th Senate.
He urged them to turn out massively on June 6 to officially bring the session to a close.

He said: “I want to thank all of us who are here present for today’s plenary. Today marks the end of our business session.
“We will be meeting on June 6 for our valedictory session. I want to appeal to all our colleagues to be present.”
The 8th senate, which was inaugurated on June 9, 2015 would be coming to an end after its valedictory session, to pave way for inauguration of the 9th National Assembly.

Nigeria operates a bicameral government, with the senate as the upper chamber.
It is made up 109 lawmakers, with equal representation of three lawmakers from each of the 36 states.

Since the return of democracy in 1999, each session of the national assembly, which the senate is part of, has a tenure of four years, after which elections are conducted and a new session commences.
Meanwhile, the President of the Senate is the Presiding Officer of the Senate, the Chairman of the National Assembly and third in the Nigerian presidential lone of succession.

His key mandate is to guide and regulate proceedings in the senate.
He is assisted by the Deputy President of the Senate in collaboration with principal officers, which include the Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader and Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader.
Others are, Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip, Minority Whip, and Deputy Minority Whip.