The Senate has dispelled rumours making the rounds that the immediate past Senate President, David Mark, had been sworn-in as Senate Majority Leader.
Dino Melaye (Kogi West) who disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Abuja called on the public to disregard the story. The conventional media and social media have been awash with reports that the Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Mai- kasuwa, had sworn-in Mark as Senate Leader.
Dismissing the story, Melaye said the Senate President of the 7th Senate was sworn-in “out of re- spect” as former Senate president as well as being the most ranking senator of the Fourth Republic.
He explained: “It is not possible for a minority senator to be a majority leader. What hap- pened is that out of respect for the former Senate President, he (Mark) was sworn-in as indi- vidual instead of the groupings that took place.
“So, we are using this oppor- tunity to correct the erroneous impression out there that he was sworn-in as the Senate Leader of the 8th Senate. That is not correct”.
BusinessDay reports that out of the 10 principal offices in the upper chamber, only two have been filled so far, leaving eight principal offices which would be decided by the party caucus in the Senate.
The eight offices yet to be filled include: majority/Senate leader, minority leader, deputy majority leader, deputy minority leader, majority/chief whip, minority whip, deputy majority whip and deputy minority whip.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
