Following the fracas that ensued at the National Assembly complex on Thursday, 20 November, it is believed that over 120 lawmakers have appended their signatures for the impeachment of President Goodluck Jonathan. The impeachment process against Jonathan is expected to commence as soon as the House reconvenes in December.
It was gathered that the lawmakers that appended their signatures belong to the opposition party, All Progressives Congress.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mohammed Zakari reacted to the incident, saying that: “The notice of impeachment was not on the order paper today but I’m not foreclosing that some other things took place.”
Meanwhile, Deputy House Leader, Leo Ogor implored the lawmakers to do away with the impeachment plans, arguing that the notice of impeachment is of no consequence because the President was not complicit in what transpired at the National Assembly.
Ogor said: “The President is unaware so bringing it (impeachment) up is going to be defeated. The President has done no wrong, impeachment should not even be part of the issue.”
It is also believed that the lawmakers attempted to move for impeachment of Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, during the brief closed door session, but the move was truncated by the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has rejected further extension of emergency rule in the three troubled states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
Zakari stated: “We have not extended the emergency rule, rather we have asked the president to rely on section 8 of the Armed Forces Act which empowers him to deploy the military to troubled spots of the country. If we had approved this today it would have been the fourth on the series.”
“You remember the request for emergency rule started in May 2013 and therefore we had done three extensions. In anything you are doing, you should be able to take stock; you will be able to see whether or not that action you are taking is yielding results. We will be doing more good if Mr President relies on that more.”
“Because if we are adopting a particular style and it is not giving us the desired result, we should be able to change it. The armed forces act empowers him to deploy soldiers to troubled parts of this country for them to take necessary action. This issue was looked at critically at the executive session and we came to this conclusion.”
No comments:
Post a Comment