DEP SPEAKER, EMEKA IHEDIOHA IS SET TO DUMP PDP AS PRESIDENCY PERSECUTES HIM OVER HIS SUPPORT FOR AMINU TAMBUWAL. Strong indications have emerged that President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are unhappy with the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, over the latter’s private reception for Speaker Aminu Tambuwal a few hours after the speaker defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday. The reception which was said to have taken place at the deputy speaker’s guest house on Pope John Paul Street, off Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja, few hours after the mini-national convention of the APC, was attended by most members of APC in the House. Ihedioha has, however dismissed the report as ‘not sensible’ while Tambuwal directed all enquiries on the matter to the deputy speaker’s men. The reception, which was initially meant to be a private one for Tambuwal, was later ‘invaded’ by other members of the lower chamber, including some PDP members, a reliable source told our correspondent. A presidential aide told our correspondent yesterday in Abuja that the deputy speaker, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, had been asked to explain which master he had elected to serve “because we cannot understand why he chose to host Speaker Aminu Tambuwal to a warm reception a few hours after he defected from our party to APC. “Is the deputy speaker with us or he is planning to move to the APC with his boss? The PDP deserves an answer from him.’’ The presidential aide asserted that, at this ‘critical moment of political decision,’ President Jonathan wanted to be very clear on whose side the deputy speaker belonged. The presidential aide continued: “You know this man (referring to Ihedioha) cannot be trusted; he has consistently worked against the party in the past. He now appears to be working for the PDP because of his 2015 political interest. But even at that, we do not know where he truly belongs.” When contacted, the media adviser to Tambuwal, Malam Imam Imam, said all clarifications on the issue should be referred to Ihedioha’s aides. The chief press secretary to the deputy speaker, Oke Epia, however, described the report as inconsequential. “This is a non-issue; are those behind this saying the deputy speaker would want to do that to show that he is in APC? I can tell you that this is not a sensible thing at all,”Epia said. The development came as the presidency was said to have directed the Nigeria Police Force, State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to withdraw their security personnel attached to the speaker for defecting from the PDP to the APC. The acting inspector-general of police, Suleiman Abba, confirmed the redeployment of the police personnel attached to Tambuwal on Wednesday. The force public relations officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, hinged the withdrawal of Tambuwal’s security aides on Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Security details attached to the speaker were said to have been withdrawn yesterday morning. After his defection on Wednesday, Tambuwal vowed to work with his new party to dislodge the ‘PDP cabal’ from power in the 2015 general election. “We came to work this morning and what we found was that all the security men did not report for duty. We are puzzled but that is the situation,” a National Assembly aide said. Tambuwal: Mr President, show better understanding of democracy – APC The APC has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to show better understanding of democracy by immediately restoring the police security details that the inspector-general of police (acting IGP) withdrew from the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC described the withdrawal of the speaker’s security details as an usurpation of the role of the judiciary by the police boss, especially bearing in mind that the question of the interpretation of Section 68(1)(g) of the constitution he anchored his illegal act on was before the courts for resolution. The party said that, for the avoidance of doubt, the position, including the manner a person becomes the speaker of the House of Representatives, is to be found in the constitution, and no constitutional provision or legislation says membership of the ruling or dominant party in the House is a pre-requisite. Furthermore, as the number four citizen of the nation, the security detail and apparatuses attached to the person of the speaker were not based on his lineage, person and or political leaning, but on account of the position and the protection required for that position and in Nigeria’s best interest. “This unfortunate use and deployment of Nigeria’s security forces in a partisan and political way portends danger and further weakens important institutions of governance and jeopardises national security. Under President Jonathan, we now have a Police Force that is monitoring and making conclusions with respect to party membership, qualification, of an otherwise elected official. This is unheard of in any decent democracy,” the party said. The APC, therefore, enjoined President Jonathan to respect and comply with the law. “We reject this meddling in the affairs of the legislature, especially given the resolution of President Jonathan and his close advisers yesterday at their meeting to ask the deputy speaker, Mr Emeka Ihedioha, to unlawfully reconvene the House before the adjourned date. “May we remind President Goodluck Jonathan that under the House Rules, only a resolution by all principal officers of the House and not even the speaker of the House, can reconvene the House before the adjourned date not to talk of the deputy speaker?”
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 10:20:24 +0000
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