SARAKI AND OTHER NATIONAL ASSEMBLY LEADERS HOLD EMERGENCY MEETING TODAY
SARAKI AND OTHER NATIONAL ASSEMBLY LEADERS
HOLD EMERGENCY MEETING TODAY
John
Ameh, Success Nwogu, Olalekan Adetayo, Leke Baiyewu and Olaleye Aluko
The leadership of the National Assembly has summoned an
emergency meeting for Tuesday (today).
The Special Assistant to the Senate President on
International Relations, Bankole Omisore, called the meeting via his Twitter
handle on Monday.
John
Ameh, Success Nwogu, Olalekan Adetayo, Leke Baiyewu and Olaleye Aluko
The leadership of the National Assembly has summoned an
emergency meeting for Tuesday (today).
The Special Assistant to the Senate President on
International Relations, Bankole Omisore, called the meeting via his Twitter
handle on Monday.
The tweet reads, “NASS leadership will tomorrow meet at noon
to consider some national issues. The National Assembly leadership comprises
both @NGRSenate and @HouseNGR.
“It will be followed by another meeting with the leadership
of @inecnigeria led by its Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu.”
It was gathered that the meeting, which will be attended by
the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker, House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; and the principal officers of both chambers
would be briefed by INEC on the 2019 general elections.
It was further gathered that the leadership would also
discuss the recent defections, which had generated controversies in both
chambers.
There had been rumours earlier on Monday that the National
Assembly might reconvene on Tuesday, suspending its ongoing two-month annual
recess. But a source at the Senate dismissed the resumption reports, stating
that it was a leadership meeting and not plenary.
The source said, “Yes, a joint leadership meeting has been
called for 12 noon tomorrow. The meeting is on the current issues in the
National Assembly, all the issues.
“By 1pm, chairman of INEC and other leaders of the commission
will join the meeting to brief the National Assembly on the preparations for
the 2019 general elections.”
Meanwhile, members of the Parliamentary Democrats Group have
said that the Senate and the House will reconvene only after getting assurances
that there will be no attempts to remove the leadership of the National
Assembly.
The spokesman for the PDG, Mr Timothy Golu, in a statement on
Monday, said lawmakers would be briefed on the outcome of the meeting of the
leadership on whether to reconvene or not.
The statement read, “Our leaders are meeting to brief us on
the appeal by the Presidency for us to reconvene. There must be assurances that
no illegality will be attempted against any of our leaders.
“We are worried by the statements from some anti-Saraki
senators like Adamu Abdullahi and Ali Ndume to the fact that the Senate
President must be changed.
“Talks are ongoing and as long as there is no threat to our
democratic peace, we can reconvene to attend to issues.
“We want peace and stability for our democracy to grow and
produce more good fruits. If among ourselves we are found guilty of any form of
sabotage for personal reasons, then we are not fair to the people.”
The group noted that only lawmakers could decide among
themselves to change their leadership and not through interference by the executive
arm.
“The legislature is an independent arm of government and as
legislators, nobody can dictate to us. So, we advise the Presidency and the
ruling APC to allow us to decide our fate.
“Our presiding officers are doing well and we have no cause
to complain. Those stoking embers of discord in the parliament should kindly
stay off,” the PDG said.
Senate leader urges immediate resumption as
Enang fears govt shutdown
But even as the National Assembly leadership planned its
emergency meeting, the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, on Monday stressed the need
for the National Assembly to reconvene immediately in order to address some
requests made by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He told State House correspondents that the need for the
federal lawmakers to reconvene from their ongoing vacation formed part of the
discussion he had with the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential
Villa, Abuja.
He said, “I have come to brief him (Osinbajo) on the
situation in the Senate and the discussion also considered the need for
the National Assembly to reconvene immediately for us to pass the virement on
the supplementary budget presented by Mr President.
“You know that the budget for 2018, the capital aspect will
be largely funded by foreign facilities, loans. Now we need to approve that.
“We also need to approve other important and essential
requests, especially that of INEC and other security agencies for our security
to be improved.
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“It is therefore very essential that we reconvene immediately
to look into those issues because our government is almost stalled and I
believe that if we are able to pass the supplementary budget and virement
request from Mr President, this will enable our administration to provide the
various infrastructure that we have planned to provide for Nigerians and also
all the other aspects of national development.”
Lawan said to do otherwise would lead to sabotage of the
administration and democracy.
He wondered how the lawmakers would describe themselves if
they cannot provide essential things for Nigerians and provide funds for INEC
to plan for the 2019 elections.
When asked what will happen if the presiding officers fail to
reconvene the Senate, Lawan said, “The presiding officers are people like you
and I; they are Nigerians, they should listen.
“So, I don’t even want to contemplate that the presiding
officers will say they will not reconvene the chambers of the National Assembly
based on the fundamental and primary request of Mr President of passing the
budget.
“I believe that the presiding officers should do the needful
to reconvene the two chambers of the National Assembly to give us the
opportunity to pass the supplementary budget and virement request of Mr
President as quickly as possible.”
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National
Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, restated his appeal to the National
Assembly to suspend its ongoing vacation in national interest.
He said if the federal lawmakers failed to approve the
request soon, it might lead to complete government shutdown.
Enang said, “We are still appealing to the National Assembly
to reconvene. You remember that we passed the budget with the understanding
that the greater amount of it would be sourced from foreign loans.
“Although it was approved that there would be loans, amount
to be sourced was not approved. The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires that the
President should specifically state the amount the government wants to get from
foreign loans and present it before the National Assembly.
“That letter has been presented to the National Assembly and
the National Assembly has to pass that amount before the money could be
obtained from foreign financing institutions.”
He added, “This is what we are asking and if it did not
happen in the next few months, we may have a complete government shutdown. What
we are receiving from the federation account as the Federal Government share of
the capital component is not enough to sustain even the 15 or 20 per cent of
the budget.”
Again, PDP Reps allege plot to invade, force
Senate open
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party members of the House
of Representatives again on Monday raised the alarm of a plot to invade the
Senate and reconvene it by force.
The PDP caucus warned that the plot, allegedly to be executed
by “a small group of senators” aided by security agencies, could lead to a
total breakdown of law and order at the National Assembly if the planners did
not abandon the idea.
The caucus gave the warning after the members’ emergency
meeting at the National Assembly.
It stated that the plotters would pretend that they wanted
the Senate to discuss urgent national issues; the real intention was to remove
the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the Deputy Senate President, Ike
Ekweremadu.
Recall that last week, the caucus raised a similar alarm and
went a step further to name senators Ali Ndume, Abdullahi Adamu and Ovie
Omo-Agege, as the brains behind the plot.
But, on Monday, it did not mention names, preferring to call
the alleged plotters “a small group of senators.”
The Deputy Minority Leader of the House, Mr Chukwuka Onyema,
who signed a statement on the position of the caucus, said any illegal
reconvening of the Senate would not stand.
The lawmakers advised the All Progressives Congress
Federal Government to uphold the rule of law in all its actions if the country
must not lose its democracy.
The caucus stated, “It has come to our attention that there
is an impending plot by a small group of senators aided by security agencies to
again invade the Senate chamber with a view to illegally reconvening the Senate
plenary.
“Ostensibly, their purpose is to address what they term as
urgent national issues. However, it is clear that their real purpose is an
attempt to unlawfully oust the leadership of the Senate and effect a change of
the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President.
“This trend of events must be strenuously resisted by all
true democrats and well-meaning Nigerians. We have, over time, witnessed a
descent of our country’s once stable democracy, into an abyss of
dictatorship.”
On the reconvening of the National Assembly, the PDP caucus
said, “The procedure for reconvening the National Assembly is unambiguously
stated in the rules of both Houses of the National Assembly. These rules draw
their constitutionality from Section 60 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
“When the National Assembly stands adjourned to a fixed date,
it may only be reconvened at an earlier or later date when the leaders of the
political parties in the National Assembly make a written representation to the
presiding officers, stating that there is a need to convene plenary to attend
to matters of urgent national importance.
“In such an event, the presiding officer may give notice to
members of a date that the National Assembly is to reconvene. In the present
instance, there has been no such notification to either the Senate President or
the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
But when contacted for his reaction to the allegations,
Omo-Agege dismissed the claims by the PDP members in the House of
Representatives.
He said, “The allegation is totally unfounded, it is a
figment of their imagination and I don’t know where this is coming from. They
had better focus on protecting Saraki if they must.
“However, they must understand one thing: nobody elected
Saraki a monarch. He was put there (as Senate President) by senators and the
senators can remove him when they believe it is time. My position on this is
very clear and I have never hidden it, the moment he stopped being a member of
the APC, he had lost not just the moral right but also the legal right to
remain as Senate President. I expect him to do the right thing, to step down
from that office and allow the majority party to appoint or elect a
replacement.”
The Nigeria Police Force in its reaction to the allegations
denied backing any faction of the National Assembly.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, said, “It
is not true that the police are supporting any group of senators. The police
are not involved in politics. We are not partisan.
“The police are not concerned with the leadership of the
Senate or the House of Representatives. The general public should disregard
those allegations. The police are not involved in party affairs.”
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