House warns Gbajabiamila group against violence
House of Representatives Deputy Speaker, Hon. Yusuf Lasun, yesterday vowed not to step down for anybody amid calls for his resignation to pave the way for the emergence of former Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as House leader. Lasun, while receiving members of his constituency, under the auspices of Ilobu Development Association, Abuja chapter, that paid him a courtesy call, described calls for his resignation as laughable. The deputy speaker has been under pressure to resign so that Gbajabiamila, who is from the South-West like him, would emerge the House leader as proposed by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
House Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has rejected the APC’s recommendation for Gbajabiamila to be majority leader on the grounds that it would be unfair for the South-West that produced Lasun to also fill the majority leader’s post. Rather, he proposed that the Gbajabiamila group should nominate another person to fill the post. However, the APC leadership has mounted pressure on Lasun to quit to weaken Dogara’s stance. It was gathered that the party at the weekend met with Dogara and Lasun with a view to persuade the deputy speaker to resign.
But Lasun told his kinsmen that asking him to resign amounts to injustice. He said: “If an Ilobu man is the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives in Nigeria today, we have made our own mark and we have contributed to APC. So, anybody talking about Yusuf Lasun’s resignation only want to cheat the Ilobu people who have toiled all day and night, having contributed to what APC is in Nigeria today. “When I look at that angle alone, I laugh. On this note I’m assuring you that not only that my colleagues on June 9 elected me on the floor of the House; it was not an appointment, it was an election that was beamed live, and it was watched all over the world, and don’t forget that there were 358 members of that House that were present and inaugurated that day.
“Having gone through all that, it will be difficult for anybody to want to say that part of the solution, part of options opened to APC now is to allow the deputy speaker to resign so that there can be peace in the House.” He spoke just as the Dogara-led leadership warned members opposed to the speaker to desist from fomenting trouble and indulging in unruly behaviour. The House was forced to adjourn on June 25 after a fight broke out between supporters of Dogara and that of Gbajabiamila over disagreement in the choice of principal officers.
The warning was contained in separate statements issued by both the ad hoc Committee on Code of Conduct and the ad hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs. The committees also denied allegations by Gbajabiamila group that the House leadership was planning to prevent some of its members from gaining entrance to the chambers. The Code of Conduct Committee in a statement yesterday by its Chairman, Hon. Aminu Shehu Shagari, said: “The committee will no longer tolerate any unruly behaviour by any member of the House, no matter how highly placed. Members who have grievances are advised to explore peaceful avenues of seeking redress instead of resorting to violence on the floor of the House, or the precincts of the National Assembly.
“There are adequate sanctions in place to penalise any member who may want to disrupt the peace during plenary, committee meetings or other legislative functions of the House. “The House will deal decisively with any member who violates the rules, disrupts plenary, or is found wanting of misconduct and other sundry offences.” In another statement by a member of the Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, the leadership denied any plot to bar members from the chambers It said: “We wish to state that the 8th House of Representatives under the able leadership of our Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, is a responsible parliament that would never contemplate anything like that. It is the right and freedom of every member to attend plenary, committee meetings and even access their offices without any hindrance.
“There was never a time the leadership considered blocking members from the National Assembly. The allegations can best be described as baseless, unfounded and figment of their imagination. “Members are hereby advised to, in accordance with relevant provisions of the House Rules, Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act, and the Code of Conduct of the House, conduct themselves with decorum and in a manner deserving of honourable members of the House, during plenary, committee meetings and other legislative engagements in the House.”
Namdas also dismissed insinuation that the leadership was trying to truncate President Muhammadu Buhari`s anti-corruption crusade. “We find this allegation as uncharitable and unbecoming of a House member. The Speaker Yakubu Dogara`s record of incorruptibility endeared him to the members which culminated in his election as Speaker on June 9. “We advise the members who lost out in the election of presiding and principal officers to emulate those who have accepted the olive branch extended to them by Mr. Speaker in the interest of peace, and stability of the House. Nigerians should ignore the allegations by members who lost out in the leadership election as it is both baseless and unfortunate,” he said. The Gbajabiamila-led Loyalists Group at the weekend had alleged that the speaker had planned to bar its members from the chambers because of their loyalty to the party and Gbajabiamila.
Also yesterday, one of Gbajabiamila’s major supporters, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa (APC, Kano), who has been tipped to emerge as the majority leader, has justified his decision to support Dogara. Doguwa, who along with some members of the Loyalists Group at the weekend dumped Gbajabiamila to team up with the speaker, said they took the decision in the interest of peace and unity of the country.
He added that they have nothing personal against the party’s candidate but have to work in national interest to deliver good governance to the electorate. Doguwa, in an interview monitored on TVC News, said he had worked for Gbajabiamila to be speaker as a loyal member of the party but since the party had accepted the election of Dogara, he did not have any justifiable reasons to continue fighting the speaker. Reacting to the question that he betrayed Gbajabiamila, the Kano lawmaker said: “No, I very much disagree with that because Femi has been a very good friend of mine after being in that political arrangement.
I speak with Femi every 24 hours, even this morning I spoke with him. We have also exchanged ideas and views based on the nature I see this crisis and based on the nature he looks at it. My view has always been consistently about the position of the party. I was with Gbajabiamila and was fighting Dogara because he defied the position of the party to become the speaker of the House of Representatives.”
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