The Senate has described as misplaced, a comment credited to a chieftain of the Labour Party, Prof Pat Utomi, over the red chamber’s decision to stop the planned increase of electricity tariffs which would further increase the suffering of the masses.
The Senate’s position was contained in a statement issued yesterday by the Chairman of the Media and Publicity Committee of the Senate, Yemi Adaramodu.
Part of the statement read, “The Senate is alarmed at the insidious misinterpretation enunciated by some political surrealists, who always leave the causes of their troubles to look for unnecessary scapegoats.
“The personal tirades and character assaults hauled at the Senate President by Professor Pat Utomi, are misdirected and uncalled for.
“Insinuating that the President of the Senate, His Excellency, Godswill Akpabio, was mocking the Nigerian masses with the phrase ‘Let the poor breathe’, is dressing falsehood and mischief in an undesirable garment.
“The Senate is an assembly of distinguished men and women, who are sent by the Nigerian public to the Hallowed Chamber to represent their interests. The public-interest motion to halt an increase in the electricity tariff for Nigerians is one such instance that tests the Senatorial responsiveness of distinguished members of the 10th Senate.
“With the fire of the fuel subsidy removal still smouldering, the Senate opined that any increase in electricity tariff would be suffocating and that whoever is desirous of doing so should allow the poor; all Nigerians to breathe.
