Controversy rages over APC’s directive to members in N’Assembly There were controversies on Sunday over a directive by the All Progressives Congress to its National Assembly members to block the passage of all legislative bills, including the 2014 budget estimates. The party, after its Interim National Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Thursday, said its lawmakers needed to do so until constitutionalism was restored to Rivers State in particular and the nation in general. The party had blamed the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party for allegedly fuelling the crisis in Rivers State and using government machinery like the police to hound the opposition. But on Sunday the PDP caucus in the House dismissed the directive as impossibility. The caucus observed that there was a difference between national interest and “party and personal interest, which the APC is pursuing.” The Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Leo Ogor, toldThe PUNCHin Abuja that it would not serve the interest of the electorate in APC-controlled states that national projects should be stopped because a political party said so. Ogor said, “The directive is totally impossible; we are waiting for them to see how they will do it. “Take the case of the budget for instance. There are projects sited in states like Lagos, Kano, Rivers states and so on. “Are you saying these projects should be stopped? Are you saying civil servants should not be paid salaries? “Besides, the APC members swore to an oath of allegiance to defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” A member of the PDP Senate caucus also said the APC was day-dreaming since it was not in control of the majority in the National Assembly. “How do you think that that directive will work when the PDP still has the highest number of lawmakers in the National Assembly? Again, don’t forget that most of those in smaller political parties are invariably PDP supporters. So the APC is dreaming in the daylight,” the PDP senator, who declined to have his name in print, said. When reminded that the APC has the highest number of lawmakers in the House of Representatives, he retorted, ”how did you come about your calculation? Go and cross-check and please do not forget to add those in small parties in both the Senate and the House.” The APC controls 172 out of the 360 members of the House while the PDP has 171. The remaining 17 members belong to other political parties. In the Senate, the PDP has 72 senators, APC, 33 and other parties, 4. Also, Labour Party lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly described as “absurd and highest level of irresponsibility,” the directive by the APC. Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the Senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District, Senator Boluwaji Kunlere, urged members of the APC in the parliament to “shun the retrogressive order” Kunlere said, “ Only an irresponsible member of the parliament would heed a retrogressive call from his or party and carry out actions that would cause tension and slow down the nation’s progress. “The security agencies should be on the alert because the action could be a plot to destabilise the country.” He dared the leadership of the APC to equally direct its governors to stop collecting monthly allocations from the federation account if they had any grievances against the country. But a key member of the APC in the National Assembly insisted on Sunday that the party’s caucus would “always win” by relying on its supporters in the PDP. He said, “People are saying that APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance) and LP members are likely to support the PDP against us, thereby allowing the PDP to win. “ I say that even in the PDP , 30 of its lawmakers in the National Assembly are supporters of the APC wearing the garb of the PDP. They are actually APC in spirit. “Any time there is a voice vote, these members will support us against the PDP.” The APC members, who asked not to be named, claimed that the PDP members had some “scores to settle with their party “, but were afraid of publicly declaring for the APC. Although the APC leadership boasted on Sunday that its directive was already yielding results, its members in the Senate expressed different views on the issue. One of them, Senator Kabir Marafa, said he would participate in the debates on the 2014 budget, and the screening of the Chief of Defence Staff and service chiefs which will begin this week. Marafa, who said he had not received any official communication from the party on the directive, argued that since the APC was in the minority in the Senate, its members would not be able to frustrate the passage of the budget and the screening of the new military chiefs.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 05:34:12 +0000
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