Press Statement
..Asks Speaker to Step Aside
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asserts that the decision of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) leadership of the House of Representatives
to shut down the sitting of various committees carrying out
investigation on the executive is a deliberate design to cover the
stench of corruption oozing out of the APC administration.
The party charges the Speaker of the House of Representative, Femi
Gbajabiamila, to stop circumventing the statutory duties of the House of
Representative and placing of wedges in the way of the fight against
corruption by the legislature.
The PDP describes the shutdown order by the APC leadership of the House
of Representatives as a clear example of corruption fighting back from
within the government circle, which must be condemned by all Nigerians.
The party notes that such incursion into the activities of the
committees is to quench the fight against corruption as well as to
frustrate whistle blowers just because APC has become an ocean of
corruption where the members are swimming.
It is clear that the shutdown directive is targeted at frustrating
revelations from ongoing investigations on the $500 billion foreign loan
from China, particularly as it relates to the mortgaging of our nation’s
sovereignty to China.
This is in addition to the investigations into the humongous corruption
in government agencies including the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC), the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) the N300 billion
unremitted revenue to the federation account as well as allegations of
corruption in government earnings and the expenditure in Ministries,
Department and Agencies (MDA’s) under the APC.
It is therefore unfortunate that under the Gbajabiamila-led leadership,
the basic responsibility of the House of Representatives, which is its
oversight on the executive, has just been maimed through a forced
holiday on the members of the respective committees and their Chairmen.
It is equally distressing that the APC leadership of the House of
Representatives is breaching parliamentary rules, practices and
procedures to shield APC leaders and their cronies who have been
fleecing our nation.
Our party therefore holds that any parliament that deliberately
frustrates its statutory responsibility to call the activities of the
executive to question has lost the essence of its own existence. The
leadership that led it into such constitutional suicide must be held
culpable.
Indeed, never in our parliamentary history has committee activities been
suspended or shut down on the ground of holiday or suspension of
plenary.
For us in the PDP, it is shocking that the APC leadership of the House
of Representatives could by any consideration shut down, its
legislative investigation, which is exclusively vested on it under
sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), on the guise
of being on break.
Such an action is calamitous to our democracy.
The PDP however commends the members of its caucus and other minorities
in the National Assembly for standing against corruption and striving to
ensure that the APC does not sell Nigerians into slavery with its
reckless foreign borrowings.
Our party urges the lawmakers not to be deterred but continue in their
assignments, as they are only answerable to the Nigerian people.
The PDP therefore charges the Hon. Gbajabiamila-led APC leadership of
the House of Representatives to immediately reverse itself as Nigerians
expect nothing but seamless investigations without unnecessary
interferences and incursions.
If the Honoruable Speaker is inclined towards allowing the covering of
corruption, against the purpose for which he was elected to lead the
House, then, he should take a bow and step aside.
Signed
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
