The Presidency has moved against lawmakers that defected from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Party on Wednesday.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that the Presidency had asked the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, to declare the seats of the 37 lawmakers vacant.

It has also asked the electoral body to begin the process of conducting fresh election in the affected lawmakers’ constituencies with a view to replacing them since there is still one more year in the lifespan of the current legislature.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, said this in an exclusive interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday.

Thirty-seven members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the House of Representatives had on Wednesday ended months of speculation as they formally defected to the APC.

The development increased the numerical strength of the APC from 135 to 172 therefore making it the party with a simple majority in the House as the PDP now has 171 members.

Wednesday’s mass defection of the lawmakers further fuelled speculations that with the lower house in the hands of the opposition, lawmakers may begin impeachment moves against President Goodluck Jonathan.

But Gulak said the President was not losing sleep because he had not committed any offence.

“We have asked the Speaker and INEC to declare the seats of the lawmakers vacant. Anyone that wants to remain in the House should face the electorate and contest on the platform of their new party,’’ Gulak said.

He added that the President was not afraid of impeachment. “He is not scared because he has not committed any impeachable offence,” he declared.

He said what happened on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday was just a case of lawmakers following their state governors who had earlier defected.

He said since INEC had taken a position that there was no division in the ruling party, “so the next step for the commission is to declare the seats of the defected lawmakers vacant and conduct fresh elections to replace them.’’

He said, “There is no division in the PDP and you are aware that INEC has given a verdict to that effect.

“The next step therefore is for the commission and the Speaker to declare the seats of the defected lawmakers vacant to pave the way for INEC to conduct fresh elections for their constituents to elect their replacements.

“Since there is still one year to go, INEC should prepare for elections.”

The presidential aide said the affected lawmakers should simply go and re-contest on the platform of their new party if they were desirous of remaining in the House of Representatives.

He said the Presidency’s position is that nobody should be forced to remain where he does not want to be.

When asked whether Jonathan is reaching out to the leadership of the House of Representatives on the development, Gulak said the President was in constant contact with the leadership of the National Assembly at the party level.

But in a swift reaction, the defected lawmakers said any attempt to declare their seats vacant would amount to the Presidency promoting rule of impunity. They also said INEC could not declare their seats vacant.

The defected lawmakers referred the Presidency to the court ruling on the matter.

Speaking on behalf of the defectors, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, said the “opinion” of the Presidency could not be superior to the ruling of the court.

He said, “Can their opinion supersede the court’s ruling? What they are trying to do is an attempt to promote the rule of impunity, which will fail. This was a party (PDP) that had control of the majority in the House and you allowed it to slip away. Now, you are complaining.”

An Abuja court had a few weeks ago ruled that the seats of the lawmakers could not be declared vacant.

Meanwhile, the Senate on Thursday said the letter of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to Jonathan was not worth discussing even as a chieftain of APC said the former president’s daughter’s purported letter to her father was a distraction.

The Senate also said calls for the impeachment of President Jonathan based on the contents of the said letter were “utter rubbish.”

Senate spokesman, Eyinnaya Abaribe, said in an interview with Saturday PUNCH in Abuja on Thursday that the Senate had no business discussing Obasanjo’s letter since it was not addressed to it.

He said the upper legislative chamber would not be dragged into a communication between Obasanjo and Jonathan.

However, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, has described Senator Iyabo Obasanjo’s purported letter to her father as a distraction.

Fashakin, who was the National Publicity Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, said in a separate telephone interview with Saturday PUNCH, on Thursday that Iyabo’s letter did not detract from the issues raised by ex-President Obasanjo in his letter to President Jonathan.

Fashakin said whatever Senator Obasanjo had against her father was a family affair which had no bearing on the growth and development of Nigeria.

He equally wondered whether Nigerians were being railroaded into taking the younger Obasanjo’s letter as President Jonathan’s response to the former president’s letter.

Fashakin said, “Should we now take the letter from Iyabo Obasanjo to her father as the response from the President?

“Because, the coincidence is too much, telling us that Obasanjo is not a good father, what has that got to do with our progress as a nation?

“That is at best the business of the Obasanjo family. What Iyabo has written and what Obasanjo has written are two different things.

“(Olusegun) Obasanjo opened a can of worms, is it true that the President has trained or is training 1,000 snipers in North Korea? Because he said it was the same place Abacha trained his own.

“There is no need trying to dance around these issues, let us know the truth. Let us know whether when we go for campaigns now those snipers will begin their work.

“Those are the things we are interested in, not the Presidency using Iyabo Obasanjo to distract us. Does her letter detract from what Obasanjo said in his letter?”

He said at best Iyabo’s letter only told Nigerians that Obasanjo was a bad father and a bad family man.

He accused the Jonathan administration of trying to use “this distraction” to shift public attention from the issues raised in Obasanjo’s letter.

Fashakin also demanded that government should explain to Nigerians the real reasons behind its decision to free Major Hamza Al-Mustapha from jail.

He expressed fears that political campaigns might become dangerous gatherings to attend if indeed there were trained snipers on the prowl.

The party chieftain maintained that what Nigerians expect from the President is for him to address all the issues raised by ex-president Obasanjo in his open letter.

Meanwhile, none of the senators elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party has formally defected to the APC. Hence, PDP is still the majority party in the Senate with 73 PDP senators against 53 APC, three LP and one APGA.

Also, the House of Representatives has said it will not debate calls for the impeachment of President Jonathan because the matter was not before the House.

It stated that “calls for the impeachment of the President” were opinions expressed by persons outside the House.

The Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Victor Ogene, explained that the legislature had a procedure for conducting its business, adding that in the case of the impeachment calls, the House had not been informed or approached.

“As a House, we respond to issues that are before us, not calls by people outside. Issues come to the House by way of motions, bills and petitions. We don’t have any of such concerning impeachment before us for now,” Ogene added.

http://www.punchng.com/news/presidency-moves-against-defected-pdp-lawmakers/

I am so much laffing in Pigin . . . .

PDP strapped improvised explosive device (IED) to its chest and about to blow up

The President's handlers are dumber than I thought since they believe that INEC is the authority on the constitutionsl question of whether there is division in PDP. What INEC stated was that it did not recognize a faction within PDP, but that's a far cry from saying that there is no division within the party.

What do you call 5 Governors, 37 Reps, and over a dozen Senators, abandoning PDP for APC? Would any same person call that cohesion and togetherness within PDP? There is obvious division within the PDP party and that is what is required to constitutionally switch to a different party. GEJ will fail again as he will soon find out that he has not only lost support in the legislative branch, but also in the judiciary. mumu

This Fashakin of a man is a clown! Somebody should inform him that if Obasanjo can treat his family so badly to the extent of his own daughter writing such letter to him,then raising false alarm like obj did in his letter to the president is a child's play.

Jman06: This Fashakin of a man is a clown! Somebody should inform him that if Obasanjo can treat his family so badly to the extent of his own daughter writing such letter to him,then raising false alarm like obj did in his letter to the president is a child's play.

...and Jonathan who is notorious for drinking dry gin should be given the mandate of millions of people?

Jman06: This Fashakin of a man is a clown! Somebody should inform him that if Obasanjo can treat his family so badly to the extent of his own daughter writing such letter to him,then raising false alarm like obj did in his letter to the president is a child's play.

funny enough, you are the clown here. What OBJ had with his daughter is a family affair that has nothing to do with you and I. the iyabo-obj letter is invalid as its ONLY motive is to dent the already dented OBJ's image and credibility which evidently is not needed as we all know how heartless and selfish he is. What we need is to demand accountability and good governance from the govt and not pokenose into OBJ's family affair

Jonathan and his boys are screaming at the wall. Nigerians are uniting under APC to deliver a progressive and developed Nigeria. PDP are just running from pillar to post with corruption.

Goodluck to Goodluck!

Instead of threatening them, he should be offering them olive branch to return to PDP.

I have given up on hoping to see smart strategic moves from this man. OBJ was right when he said that GEJ's advisors are skilled at making enemies for him.

Let him try to pressure Tambuwal to vacate the seats of the defecting members, and he will just ENCOURAGE Tambuwal to defect, and ENCOURAGE the National Assembly to impeach him.

As they say in America, "You can't fix stu.pid."

Goodbye big bad Joe!

PDP doesnt have smart strategists at all. You asked a speaker you didnt instal to vacate the seats of those who installed him?

padeolu: funny enough, you are the clown here. What OBJ had with his daughter is a family affair that has nothing to do with you and I. the iyabo-obj letter is invalid as its ONLY motive is to dent the already dented OBJ's image and credibility which evidently is not needed as we all know how heartless and selfish he is. What we need is to demand accountability and good governance from the govt and not pokenose into OBJ's family affair

Since you already know that Obasanjo lacks credibility, is it not ridiculous to suggest that his letter (and the "issues" raised therein) are credible? Can the testimony of a witness who lacks credibility be accepted by any court - including the court of public opinion?

A bad tree cannot bear good fruits.

pro01:

Since you already know that Obasanjo lacks credibility, is it not ridiculous to suggest that his letter (and the "issues" raised therein) are credible? Can the testimony of a witness who lacks credibility be accepted by any court - including the court of public opinion?

A bad tree cannot bear good fruits.

That's illogical. If some of what Obj wrote in his letter were in line with what some of us have expressed about this government, then we can not discard what he wrote to Jonathan.

ndu_chucks: The President's handlers are dumber than I thought since they believe that INEC is the authority on the constitutionsl question of whether there is division in PDP. What INEC stated was that it did not recognize a faction within PDP, but that's a far cry from saying that there is no division within the party.

What do you call 5 Governors, 37 Reps, and over a dozen Senators, abandoning PDP for APC? Would any same person call that cohesion and togetherness within PDP? There is obvious division within the PDP party and that is what is required to constitutionally switch to a different party. GEJ will fail again as he will soon find out that he has not only lost support in the legislative branch, but also in the judiciary. mumu

That's changing parties or cross-carpeting

that's not division

Nigerian politicians are cowards, if you want to leave PDP give up the benefits of being in PDP and the peoples mandate and try your luck in your new party

that's how democracy should work