Reps resist moves to impeach Tambuwalon September 29, 2013 at 12:30 am in News
By Emman Ovuakporie
ALLEGED moves to impeach the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Tambuwal, by Reps perceived to be loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan may have hit a brick wall.
Sunday Vanguard, at the weekend, gathered that meetings being held by the various interest groups in the House were geared at backing Tambuwal and not to remove him from office.
Members of the House, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, were unanimous in declaring that it is virtually impossible to impeach the Speaker.
Rep Ahmed Datti, the Deputy Minority Whip, CPC, said, “Impeachment moves or rumours merely exist on newspaper pages, not in the House.
”In the first place, they cannot get one third talkless of two third to get him impeached. “
*Tambuwal
The Kano Rep went on: “This is not a state assembly like Rivers State where you just impeach people.
”They are just doing whatever they are up to because they know that if they don’t, executive bills will suffer on the floor of the House.
”It is not feasible for such a thing to happen in the 7th Assembly, it is just a rumour.
Chairman, House Committee on Corruption and Ethics, Hon Abiodun Faleke,APC, who spoke in similar vein, simply said: “They cannot achieve it through normal process, but with the PDP, where 16 is greater than 19 and where five members were used to impeach a governor, anything can happen, but not on the floor of the House.”
Hon Nkem-Abonta, PDP, representing Abia State, who also spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said”, Nobody can impeach Tambuwal and moves to impeach Mr President too are not feasible in the 7th Assembly.
“Tambuwal has not committed any offence to warrant such a move in the first place.
”What we are interested in is how to move Nigeria forward, not impeachment moves that would do no one any good at this moment.
”Tambuwal carries everybody along. He never left anybody behind and he has the rare leadership quality of identifying the 359 members of this House by his first name and even our various constituencies.
”We have done very well in this 7th Assembly; nobody can stop that for now and we shall continue to build on that foundation. “
Spokesman for the House, Hon Zakari Mohammed, PDP, representing Baruten/Kaiama Federal Constituency, Kwara State, dismissed impeachment moves against Tambuwal.
His words: “No one is in doubt about Tambuwal’s sterling leadership qualities in this 7th Assembly as you do not need a soothsayer to tell you that he has achieved and piloted the social contract we all signed with Nigerians selflessly.
”No one among the 359 members in this Assembly doubts his leadership prowess.
”All we want is to move this country forward and put smiles on the faces of Nigerians so that democracy can have a human face in this clime. “ House Committee Chairman on Interparliamentary Affairs, Hon Daniel Reyenieju, PDP, had this to say:
”You cannot rule out the current reality on ground over power tussle in the House, but we do not believe it could degenerate to that level.
”Tambuwal enjoys tremendous support from members generally and impeachment is not the best option for now. Instead, we should remain united so that we can move this country forward.
”Our number one mission is to see how we can deliver dividends of democracy and make Nigerians feel the effect of it. ”Bills on the floor should be passed irrespective of who brought it to the House because what should be uppermost in our minds is the stability of this great country.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that in a bid to have a smooth plenary as soon as the House resumed, Tambuwal and other principal officers constituted a seven-man committee to mediate between members of the mainstream PDP and the `New PDP’, also known as nPDP..