Amidst reports that the President and the PDP will have the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha reconvene the House in a bid to commence an impeachment process against the Speaker of the House, the Senator that represents Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, Sen. Magnus Abe, has said that the President and the PDP can’t get the needed 240 members to impeach the Speaker
Speaking at the weekend in his home town, Bera-Ogoni hometown in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, to All Progressives Congress, APC executives on the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) between November 7 and 9, said that the taking over of Mubi by the insurgence is clear showing that the country is at war.
Senator Abe said; “As we speak now (yesterday), the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, the Number Four citizen of this country, has joined our party (APC). He left the other party (PDP) for the same reason that we left and other people are leaving.
“People are coming to APC, because there is no justice, there (in PDP) and there is no integrity in what they are doing. There is no honesty. Nobody is abiding by the rules that we all agreed on. When you leave, they begin to chase after you.”
“As Alhaji Tambuwal left PDP, they withdrew his security. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is very clear. You can become a Speaker of the House of Representatives, once you are a member of the House of Representatives. Nobody in Nigeria, no power in Nigeria can get 240 members of the House of Representatives to say that Alhaji Tambuwal is not their Speaker. Nobody can do it”, he said.
Meanwhile the alleged scheme to use the Deputy Speaker to reconvene the House in the process of commencing impeachment process, against the Speaker has suffered a set back as the House of Representatives Members said that it has no power to do so; in a statement signed by the chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon Zakari Mohammed, on Sunday said that the lawmakers noted that the House Standing Orders, which is a guide to proceedings in the House, states emphatically that the speaker may approve a date to reconvene the House from recess after leaders of all the political parties in the House notify him that public interest requires that the House should meet on an earlier or a later date or time than that on which it was supposed to resume.
According to the statement; “The procedure for reconvening or re-assembly of the House is contained in the House Standing Orders made pursuant to Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which empowers the House to regulate its own procedure, including the procedure for summoning and recess of the House.
“This means that the leaders of all the political parties in the House, especially the majority and minority leaders respectively, MUST consent before the representation is made to the speaker who has a discretion to agree or not”.
