[size=14pt]Senate Probes NTA, THISDAY over Motion on Yar’Adua[/size]
From Sufuyan Ojeifo in Abuja, 01.13.2010

Senate yesterday resolved to probe THISDAY newspaper report on its Tuesday motion on President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s health condition.

The Upper House also said that it would probe the refusal by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) to cover and televise live the plenary sitting yesterday where the motion was debated.
Senator Chris Anyanwu, a former journalist, cited Order 18 of the Senate Standing Rules (2007 as Amended) to table a complaint to the Senate, saying that the lead story of THISDAY, entitled: “Yar’Adua: Senate Considers Sending Team to S’ Arabia” breached her privilege.

She complained that the report contained information about what the Senate wanted to do when the action was to be taken and called on the Upper House to investigate how the reporter got his information.
In line with Order 18 of the Senate Standing Rules, she laid a copy of THISDAY edition of Tuesday, January 12, 2010 on the table before the Senate.

The Senate directed the matter to its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to grill the reporter to disclose his source of information.  The Senator Omar Hambagda-led committee was given two weeks to complete its assignment.
Also yesterday, the Upper House lambasted the NTA management for failing to transmit yesterday’s session live, saying it was an act of sabotage which would be investigated.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze, who briefed the press at the end of plenary, said: “The first thing I want to say is to inform Nigerians that this morning (yesterday morning), we were billed to take this debate that happened live and we had informed NTA accordingly and the NTA management refused to bring the live cameras.

“I think it was an attempt to frustrate the effort of the Senate to brief the people of Nigeria live so that they can see what we are talking about and it was an attempt to frustrate our independent arm of government.

“This is a Legislature and it is not a part of the Executive and if we had commissioned NTA, I spoke with the DG of NTA last night and he gave me no indication that he was not coming to bring his cameras this morning (yesterday morning).

“I think we owe a duty to inform the people of Nigeria about this sabotage; this effort to frustrate an arm of government.  It is all what we have been talking about: that the Legislature is the weeping boy of the Nigerian democracy because it is the youngest arm and therefore people can conspire and do whatever they like.”

Eze added: “I think it is in very bad taste for the NTA management under the directives of whoever to do what they did today (yesterday) because that station is run with the money contributed by Nigerian people.

“They come to defend their budget and there is provision for them on a yearly basis and they have no reason whatsoever not to avail their services to the people of Nigeria who indeed own that station.

“The matter is not going to end here because we are going to conduct a full inquiry into what has happened this morning (yesterday morning).

“The Senate takes very strong exception to what happened by NTA and we have no hidden agenda.  The Senate is filled with very mature Nigerians and I do not think anybody can gag the Senate.

“What the DG NTA told me when I called him was that he will record it and play it back which means that he will record and edit out whatever he does not like and this is the Senate.”

He continued: “The Senate is made up of very responsible citizens of this country.  Any attempt to mortgage this democracy because if you gag the Senate or the National Assembly, you have effectively gagged the representative of the people.

“This is very serious and I want the people to appreciate how serious this situation is and to understand that this indeed can be an equivalent to subvert the will of the people.

“This was an attempt to subvert the will of the people. We are going to do everything as an independent arm of this democracy to resist, investigate and get to the root of what happed today (yesterday) to make sure that this kind of misdemeanour will not happen next time. We want to leave this at this for now.”

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=164068

Jokers.

Foo.lish people!. These to them are matters of higher priorities now?

Yaradua is becoming a headache/burden to Nigerians.