Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has said that the All Progressives Congress, APC, letter to the House leadership containing names of those to occupy the principal officers position was against the constitution of Nigeria.
The Speaker stated this at the weekend when he received a delegation of past members led by Rep. Dauda Bundot and Rep. Jonathan Asake.
The House was thrown into pandemonium on Thursday which led to fisticuffs following the alleged Speaker’s refusal to read the letter from the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Oyegun which contained names to fill the positions.
Addressing his visitors, the Speaker said: “As leaders, we are bound by the constitution and when we got that directive from the party, we said that we must defend the constitution, we must enforce our rules.
“It would have harmful effects to the constitution of Nigeria for us to adopt the position of the party.
“Assuming we go ahead to announce the party’s position, which recognises members of the Northeast and Southwest as principal officers which the Northcentral members have already made a very strong allegation against APC, what happens?
“Assuming a court now rules that, the directive of the party breaches the provisions of the constitution relating to federal character, do we now begin to see somebody vacating his official principal position so that we can accommodate the court’s ruling?”
The Speaker further said that in order to avoid such problems it would be best that the offices of the presiding officers were given to other zones that had not produced any principal officers. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Hon Dogara,you are the real soldier for our democracy which few selfish politicians have hijacked all this while. You are the true face of change.
ReplyDeleteHon Dogara, I hear President Obama is hailing you and Saraki as the true face real democracy! Read the book of Nehemiah for inspiration. It is better to be feared and respected than to be loved and treated as a mere acolyte of selfish party leaders. You would have been deemed a coward for life if you bowed to selfish and selective 'party supremacists' who provoke tribal/regional civil wars only to fight it on pages of Newspapers. It is inconceivable that the entire arsenal of media propaganda deployed to defeat President Jonathan and the PDP has been turned to denigrate the Senate President Saraki and the Speaker Dogara as if Nigeria belongs to 'made-by-Government-money' billionnaire APC party leaders - exactly what obtained in PDP and what centrally led to their defeat. APC leadership was crazy enough to think that defeat of Jonathan is defeat of Federal character dues of the Southeast and Southsouth. Saraki and Dogara are the seeds of change seen and supported by majority of Nigerians. Let Buhari show the seeds of change he is going to plant for all to see - let Buhari immediately declare a state of emergency on corruption and insecurity - and use the leeway to abolish 'security votes' for President and Governors; abolish all earned allowances by whatever name greater than annual basic salary, abolish LGA joint account with states, and introduce poll tax paid to computerized accounts with banks. These are the seeds of change Nigeria wants to see not who owns the party- a continuation of 'wicked my-ownization' of Governance in Nigeria that was nurtured by post Murtala Mohammed military and civilian rulers as testified by Bishop Mathew Kukah.
ReplyDeleteA good step in the right direction. Hon Dogara, you people in the House must be firm and asert your independence. Do not allow yourselves to be tossed around by parties leadership and Federal Executive.
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