The horse-trading over the defection of the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu
Tambuwal, continues on Monday (today) with the
All Progressives Congress Caucus in the House
heading for the court to stop the plot by the
Peoples Democratic Party to force the speaker
out of office.
The APC Caucus Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila,
dropped the hint just as The PUNCH learnt on
Sunday that the PDP national leadership had
summoned the party’s members in the House to
an emergency meeting on Monday (today). It was
gathered that meeting which will hold at the
Wadata Plaza headquarters of the party was to
further fine tune the strategies for booting out
Tambuwal.
Gbajabiamila said, “We are ready for the PDP and
all those people. They have their plans; we have
our own as well.
“Our prayers in court will be similar in a way to
those sought by the speaker, but different in
other ways. Everything will be in black and white;
we are coming out with a statement soon after
filing our case.”
APC Reps are also expected to hold a meeting
today (Monday) at their party’s national
secretariat in Abuja.
Chairman, House Committee on Justice, Mr.
Ahmad Ali, said, “We are holding our meeting;
PDP will hold theirs too as I hear.”
The Speaker, who on October 28 announced his
defection , had on Friday filed a suit before the
Federal High in Abuja asking it to halt any plan by
the PDP to remove him from office.
He also challenged the power of the Acting
Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba,
to withdraw his security aides on the grounds of
the provisions of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999
Constitution (as amended).
The PUNCH gathered that the reported plan by
the PDP caucus to reconvene the House on
Tuesday (tomorrow) may not materialise.
Tambuwal had adjourned the House to December
3 soon after he announced his defection . But the
PDP, expressing displeasure over the speaker’
defection, had reportedly directed it caucus to
resume legislative proceedings under the
leadership of the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Emeka
Ihedioha.
However, as of Sunday, there were no indications
that lawmakers would return to the chambers on
Tuesday (tomorrow).
Although investigations showed that no member
of the House had been communicated with the
matter, PDP lawmakers were summoned to the
Wadata Plaza national headquarters of the party
for an emergency meeting with PDP leaders on
Monday(today).
Findings showed that the meeting would likely
take a position on the exact action the party PDP
wanted its lawmakers to take.
When contacted on the possibility of the House
reconvening on Tuesday, the Deputy House
Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, replied that the
PDP was yet to take a concrete stand on the issue.
He said, “The PDP lawmakers will meet on
Monday (today); invitations have been sent out.
So, we are going to the meeting. The party will
take a position; everything depends on what will
be the party’s position.”
Asked if the caucus would go ahead to reconvene
the House if directed to do so by the PDP
leadership, Ogor advised The PUNCH to wait for
the position of the party.
It was gathered that the PDP might have chosen
to thread softly on the matter since Tambuwal
had asked for the protection of the judiciary.
Investigations also showed that the PDP caucus
would be in a “tight corner” reconvening the
House without involving the leaders of other
caucuses in the House.
The Standing Orders of the House provide that
the speaker can only reconvene the House in
consultation with the caucus leaders.
Order V(18), sections 1 and 2 of the Standing
Orders states, “Whenever the House shall stand
adjourned to a date not fixed and it is
represented to the Speaker by the leaders of the
political parties in the House that the House shall
meet on a certain day at a certain time, the
Speaker shall give notice accordingly and the
House shall meet on the date and at the time
stated in the notice.
“Whenever the House stands adjourned either to
a date fixed by Resolution or Rule of the House,
and it is represented by the leaders of the
political parties in the House to the Speaker that
the public interest requires that the House should
meet on an earlier or a later date or time than
that on which it stands adjourned, the speaker
may give notice accordingly, and the House shall
meet on the date and at the time stated in the
notice.”
The APC caucus has already stated that it has no
intention of calling for such a meeting or
attending any.
A member of the caucus said, “Of course, you
don’t expect Tambuwal, in these circumstances, to
oblige any call to reconvene the House or agree to
sit with caucus leaders for the purpose of
reconvening the House.
“He is the speaker, he adjourned the House till
December 3. You expect him to overrule himself
mid-way to please the PDP?”
When contacted, Gbajabiamila said , “Our rules
are very clear on this. If the House is to be
reconvened, I should know. I am a party leader;
going by the provisions of our rules.
“So, I know that we adjourned to resume on
December 3.”
Meanwhile, more reactions have continued to
follow the withdrawal of the security aides of
Tambuwal and the threat by the PDP to ensure
his removal if he fails to resign as speaker.
Those who spoke on the developments on are a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana; the
Buhari Campaign Organisation, Kwara State
Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and Senator Magnus
Abe.
While Falana asked the acting IG, Suleiman Abba,
to resign for his partisan roles, the BCO said the
reactions of the PDP-led Federal Government and
the Police to Tambuwal’s defection signposted the
danger ahead of the general elections.
The SAN reminded Abba in a letter that the
treatment meted out to the speaker was never
given to a number of political office holders who
defected from other parties to the PDP.
He said the IG’s actions and utterances had
“exposed the police to unwarranted ridicule as
Nigerians are not unaware of the fact that when
the Ondo State legislators elected on the platform
of the Labour Party defected to the PDP last
month.”
He recalled that the security details of the speaker
of the state House of Assembly, Jumoke Akindele,
were not withdrawn when she led her colleagues
to dump the LP for the PDP.
Falana said, “In the same vein, Ahmadu Fintiri, the
Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly
and his colleagues defected from the PDP to the
APC and have since returned to the PDP.
“You did not have cause to declare their seats
vacant. Neither have you withdrawn the security
details of the Fintiri.”
Also, the BCO Coordinator in Ondo State, Bola
Ilori, said the role of the police in Tambuwal’s
defection posed a threat to democracy and the
unity of Nigeria.
Ilori told journalists in Akure on Saturday that the
Nigerian Police as a creation of the constitution,
belonged to the Nigerian people irrespective of
their political affiliation.
Like Falana, he said, “It is a known fact that the
Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly
defected from the LP to the PDP this same month
without the police striping her of her security
details.
“This act of withdrawing the security details of the
speaker, House of Representatives without a
court order is a proof that the Nigerian police
under the current IG portrays the force as the
armed wing of the PDP.
“One wonders why the police had to adopt a
different approach when a high official like the
fourth citizen of Nigeria who defected from the
PDP to the APC.”
In Ilorin, Kwara State Governor Ahmed said the
action of the police amounted to a usurpation of
the duties of the judiciary.
Ahmed spoke during the swearing-in of members
of the reconstituted Kwara State Judicial Service
Commission.
The governor said in a statement by his Chief
Press Secretary, Abdulwahab Oba, that, “It is the
business of the judiciary and not that of any other
arm or organ of government to interpret laws of
the land and the legal implication of political
action such as cross carpeting.”
Also, Abe said even though the PDP was working
through the back door to have Tambuwal
impeached, he was sure that “nobody can remove
him.”
He added during the launch of the sensitisation
campaign for the collection of permanent voter
cards in Bera, Gokana Local Government Area on
Saturday, that the PDP did not have 240
lawmakers in the House to be able to effect the
removal of the speaker
The lawmaker said, “The only way they can
remove him is if they can garner 240 votes on the
floor of the House. The PDP cannot get that
number of lawmakers in the House to remove
him. As you are aware, the speaker has left the
PDP to join our party for the same reasons that
made us to leave the PDP for the APC.
“People are leaving because there is no justice,
integrity and honesty in what they are doing in
the PDP. People are leaving the PDP because they
do not abide by the rules that we all have agreed
to govern our actions.”

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