ROWDY SESSIONS: Disorder in Senate During Discussions on Rivers Crisis

The Senate had supported the traditions of rowdy sessions, as tempers rose during discussions of the ongoing crisis in Rivers State.
The unhealthy incident occurred on January 22, 2014, Wednesday, when the upper chamber was considering a motion entitled: “Recent Shooting and Disruption of Political Rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State” sponsored by Senator Wilson Ake (Rivers West) and 47 others.
Senator Alkali Jajere (Yobe South) sprang from his seat to protest alleged abusive comment directed at Senator Ahmed Lawan by Senator James Manager (Delta South).
Sen. Jajere was said to have been infuriated by alleged unprintable remarks Sen. Manager made against Sen. Lawan.
Yobe South Senator further demanded apology from Sen. Manager and insisted that proceedings at the chamber could only resume when Sen. Manager apologised to Sen. Lawan.
Senate plenary was disrupted for more than 10 minutes, as some of the Senators made efforts to calm Sen. Jajere, who charged furiously at Sen. Manager.
The Senate President, David Mark, watched with disbelief as voices rose, while some Senators promptly formed a ring around Sen. Manager, apparently, to ward off any possible attack on him.
A group of Senators reminded Sen. Manager that the proceeding of the Senate were live on TV, and therefore, convinced him to apologise to Sen. Lawan.
The Delta South lawmaker left his seat shook hand and embraced Lawan.
After the incident David Mark reminded his colleagues that all of them “cannot be telling people dialogue, dialogue and then… fight.”
“Tempers rose just now, I hope it does not rise again. We have to be careful about the situation in Rivers State,” he added.
The Senate further decided to invite the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Mohammed, to brief it and give a situation report of the current situation in Rivers State.
It would be recalled that on January 21, 2014, Tuesday, the House of Representatives was embroiled in uproar as the All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the House claimed majority during debates on Rivers crisis