THE Senate on Tuesday begins move to sanction one of its outspoken members, Senator Kabiru Marafa, a staunch member of the Senate Unity Forum (SUF), for granting what it considered an offensive interview, recently.

The Zamfara Senator was quoted in one of the national dailies as saying that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, should resign his position, over his trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

An aggrieved Senator Ahman Yisa Misau (APC Bauchi Central) who raised a matter of privilege in the chamber, on Tuesday, said comments by Marafa in the interview, had breached his privilege.

The motion was seconded by Senator Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South). But Saraki, in his ruling, referred the matter to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions and gave the committee two weeks to report to the whole House.

Saraki said: “This is not new to the Senate on issues of this nature, and I therefore refer it to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions so that they can report back in two weeks’ time.”

Senator Ahmed Misau, in his motion, said “Senate President, I want to task all of us to rise to the challenge of handling the issue before it goes off hand. We should not allow an individual to bring this distinguished Senate down. I suffered for 10 years contesting for Senate, before I eventually succeeded in 2015.”

He explained that Marafa “granted an interview misleading the public and telling lies against this institution, the Senate. I think I have been called more than 500 times from my constituency in respect of this publication. I am a kind of person who struggled very hard to be here in this Senate. I know how much I suffered, God in his infinite mercy granted me this privilege in 2015 and I will not allow somebody who enjoyed the seventh Senate to come and not allow us to do our work properly.

“Mr President, I think the leadership has to do something about this, the Senate should do something about this. We cannot allow one person to continue to tell lies against the Senate and misleading the public.”