Sunday Independentgathered from one of the aggrieved Senators spearheading the impeachment moves that there is currently a crack in the wall of their plot, as other members in the pro-impeachment group have begun to back out following the intervention of the Senate President, David Mark. The lawmaker toldSunday Independent,that Mark had been “talking to us individually on the need to understand that an impeachment action against Mr President now, may not be a good idea”. He also disclosed that Mark specifically met with the “ring leaders” of the impeachment last Thursday evening to assure them that “whatever were our grievances would be looked into and addressed promptly. Based on the Senate President’s intervention however, the Senator who is a PDP member stated that “those in their group began to have a second thought about it (impeachment)”. The Senator toldSunday Independentthat Mark had equally scheduled a meeting of the larger group of the Senators whose number, on the last count, had risen to 66 from both major political parties but predominantly from the APC, while over 200 members of the House of Representatives are said to have signed the impeachment notice. The Senate made up of 109 members has PDP as majority with same in the House of Representatives of 360 members. Sunday Independentwas told that Mark’s intervention late last week came on the heels of intense pressure personally from the President Goodluck Jonathan and some of his close aides including some top shots in the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who were said to be uncomfortable with the media report on the matter so far. Mark, we learnt, was directed to urgently “do something about the impeachment threat “as according to our source, the presidency believes that this election period was most inauspicious time for any lawmaker to raise the bogey of impeachment. Besides, the impeachment moves on-going in the House of Representatives in which over 250 lawmakers have reportedly appended their signature, has whipped up sufficient concern in the presidency and within the PDP even the constitutional process to that effect is very elongated and downright cumbersome. Among the grievances of the lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly particularly the Senate, are that the presidency was brusquely intervening in the internal affairs of the Parliament in such a manner that it was beginning to erode the independence of the legislature and thereby violating the basic democratic principles of Separation of Powers. The November 20 invasion of the National Assembly by the security agencies on the alleged orders of the executive arm of government was, according to the lawmakers, the high point of the infraction on the statutory rights of the legislature. Also, the parliamentarians have catalogued a roll-call of what they believe were the constitutional violations of the president which in the apex law book, warrants the removal of the president from office. Above all, the lawmakers of both chambers believe that the executive on the behest of the President, has abysmal contempt for the parliament which they said, often shows in the way cabinet ministers, the heads of the various parastatals and agencies of government flout legislative directives or refuse to honour parliamentary committee summons as well as withholding of operational funds due to the National Assembly. The opposition in the Senate particularly, is dissatisfied by what some of their Senators described as the overwhelming influence of the executive on the Senate. For the PDP senators who are part of the impeachment, their major grouse is hinged on the basis that President Jonathan and the leadership of the PDP are allegedly playing games with the issue of automatic ticket reported to have promised about 40 Senators to return to the parliament in 2015 when the lawmakers had a parley with the president at the Aso Rock Villa recently. As the prospect of an impeachment action this week against Mr President seemed to be a mere castle in the air with the said intervention of David Mark, Senate Spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has already dismissed as a no issue, the threat of impeachment. Abaribe told newsmen late last week, that an impeachment process was non-existent to his knowledge. But Sunday Independent gathered that the pro-impeachment Senators have continued to hold consultations among themselves on whether or not, to proceed with their plot despite the said frantic intervention by the Senate President, David Mark. The event in the House of Representatives however seemed to be providing sufficient grounds for the aggrieved Senators to be considering whether to push ahead in their impeachment plans. Though the Presidency is pretending not to be worried about the threat of impeachment,Sunday Independentcan authoritatively reveal that the Villa is quite worried and has commenced moves to stave the threat. A dependable presidency source told this newspaper in confidence at the weekend that the news of growing numbers of members of PDP said to be joining the move to serve impeachment notice on the president has been confirmed by the presidency to be true, a development that has thrown the president’s men into panic. Not knowing how best to approach and pacify the lawmakers without giving the parliamentarians the impression that the presidency is afraid of them, a move to involve the State Governors in begging the aggrieved lawmakers has begun. Sunday Independent reliably gathered also that the constant bashing of the government of President Goodluck Jonathan by former President Olusegun Obasanjo is also causing big headache for the government and that the presidency is currently looking for how best to pacify the ex-president who seem to have made up his mind to fight the government of President Jonathan to a standstill. Ex-President Obasanjo, like he has been doing in the last two years, few days ago, took the government of President Jonathan to the cleaners once again, accusing the presidency of encouraging corruption and as well refusing to tackle the menace of insurgency at the right time, blaming the new wave of the malaise on the inaction of the presidency. The president’s men were quite angry that the former president once again openly condemned the government of President Jonathan at a time some “rebels in the parliament are trying to create tensions in the polity through the alleged impeachment threat”. The current move by Obasanjo, it was gathered, was viewed by the present administration as a move to encourage and give credibility to the allegations being raised against president Jonathan by the National Assembly. The House of Representative members were the first to express their readiness to push out the president from office through impeachment following his alleged stoking of the crisis rocking the parliament which is said to be targeted at getting the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal removed from office through any means possible, following his defection from the PDP to the APC. Aggrieved members of the House of Representatives who commenced the process of gathering signatures for the service of impeachment notice on the President had compiled 50 impeachable offences against him on the account of the invasion of their legislative House by the police. While the president’s men were initially ignoring the Reps whom they considered as “trouble makers” reality began to dawn on them on the seriousness of the matter when the news of PDP members in the Senate joining their APC colleagues in signing for the service of impeachment notice on the president became open. Speaking on the move to pacify the aggrieved legislators, a presidency source disclosed to this newspaper that a team has been put together by the “friends of the president” to appeal to the state governors “to consider what the legislators can do the president and help save the situation by giving what the parliamentarians want to them”. The source said that the fact is not lost on the presidency that the PDP members in the National Assembly are joining the moves to “embarrass” the president through the impeachment notice as a negotiating methodology to getting the president to give in to their demand for automatic ticket to contest the 2015 election and nothing more. Getting the state governors who have made up their minds to stifle the ambition of most federal legislators to return to the National Assembly, to back down on the project has become a big problem for the presidency as the earlier agreement reached between the presidency and the legislators which would have seen a minimum of 60 percent of PDP lawmakers given the party’s ticket to contest the election once again, was rejected by the state governors who perceived it as an affront on their power and control of the state chapters of the party. “It will be foolish of anyone to wave away the threat of impeachment against the president as a non issue. “Our party members in the National Assembly are boxed into a corner, they are prepared to fight back, and they may fight dirty. “We are hoping to persuade the State Governors to see reasons why the legislators must be given some slack. It will be a disaster if the Governors send all of them packing on December 6 and 7 when the primaries for House of Representatives and the Senate will hold across the states. “Believe me, if majority of the federal parliamentarians get their ticket back, the impending embarrassment will be averted” the source said. Another source who is a member of the party’s Board of Trustee told Sunday Independent in confidence on Friday that a decision has been taken to involve three prominent traditional rulers in the efforts at pacifying former president Obasanjo and make him see reasons why he should stop castigating the government of President Jonathan. According to the high ranking PDP member, three eminent traditional rulers who have been identified as people Obasanjo have much respect for are to be contacted and given the task of talking to the former president and prevailing on him to “stop destroying the house he assisted to build”
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 18:59:53 +0000
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