TheCable

Ovie Omo-Agege, senator representing Delta central, says President Muhammadu Buhari will determine who becomes senate president in the ninth assembly.

NAN quoted Omo-Agege as saying that anyone who will become senate president will have to be loyal to Buhari.

He said they will all abide “and fall in line” with any decision the president makes on choice of senate president.

The senator said the All Progressives Congress (APC) would avoid the scenario that led to the emergence of Bukola Saraki as the president of the senate in 2015.

“Anybody who is going to be senate president, in the 9th senate, must be somebody who is loyal to Mr President, the party and the constitution,” he said.

‘‘The senate president will be determined by Mr President. Mr President will indicate to us through the party who he wants to work with.

“What I can tell you is that we are going to have a senate that will work with Mr President.

‘‘The era of allowing renegades who rode on the back of Mr President, who rode on the back of the party to go in there and trade the party’s mandate, I think that era is gone.

‘‘I am very hopeful that this time around, Mr President will step in and decide not only the zone that will produce the Senate president and the leadership but also who, it should be.

‘‘We don’t want to erect another opposition leader in the senate, as we had in the 8th assembly.

‘‘There are a lot of us in the senate who are returning to the next senate who fits into that position.”

The legislative arm of government is supposed to be independent of the executive, according to the constitution.