As the House of Representatives get set to resume plenary on Tuesday, lawmakers loyal to the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, and Femi Gbajabiamila under the platform of ‘Loyalist Group’, have raised the alarm over plans by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, to prevent them from gaining access to the Assembly.
The spokesperson of the group, Nasiru Zangon-Daura, who addressed a press conference at Protea Hotel, Asokoro, Abuja on Sunday, also accused the speaker and his supporters of working with members elected under the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to frustrate the anti-corruption drive of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Mr. Zangon-Daura said Speaker Dogara is specifically planning to stop members of the group such as Aliyu Madaki, Rufai Chanchangi, Philip Shaibu, Mohamed Soba, Isa Zuru, Ahmed Kaita, Ismaila Sulaiman, James Falken, Yusuf Ikara, Abdullahi Salame and Abubakar Chika from entering the chambers
“We strongly warn Speaker Dogara that we will not take any breach of our members’ privileges lightly and we will hold you, Speaker Dogara personally responsible. Honour is earned through honourable actions. A word is enough for the wise”, he said.
Mr. Zangon-Daura also said the attempt by Dogara to bring back the PDP to reckoning after losing the 2015 general elections would not work.
“We have therefore, resolved that enough is enough of the shenanigans of the PDP and Speaker Dogara group.
“We hereby remind Speaker Dogara group and his PDP allies in the House that we have fought the PDP and already chased them out of government because we were willing to pay the price to ensure that Nigerians are not short-changed.
“And we are ready to do it again now so that the Change Agenda prevails in the House of Representatives”, he said.
The lawmaker said the 2015 elections presented an opportunity to consign the PDP to the dustbin of history but that such quest is being hampered due to the activities of a few disloyal members “of the APC who had already formed an unholy alliance with the PDP in the House”.
“We had hoped that with a difference of just 8 votes between Dogara and Femi, Speaker Dogara would have realised the need to cultivate a united House of Representatives.
“We are also cognisant that in politics there are always the subversive activities and antics of 5th columnist in any political movement to content with.
“We are also aware that this unholy alliance is a bid to truncate President Muhammadu Buhari’s agenda, which include his anti-corruption stance by using the National Assembly to, at the very minimum, slow it down if they cannot stop this Presidential initiative dead cold.
“We know that this unholy agreement between the disloyal Dogara group and the PDP entail the deployment of PDP members and the disloyal APC group in strategic positions in the Structures and Committees of The House.
“The purpose of this strategic deployment is to enable the PDP to indirectly dictate the pace and activities of the National Assembly to the detriment of our party’s goals and objectives”, he said.
When contacted, spokesperson of the pro-Dogara lawmakers under the aegis of ‘Consolidation Group’, Abdulmumini Jibrin, denied that any member of the House would be blocked from gaining entry into the National Assembly tomorrow.
“Nobody is trying to block anybody. They are in the minority, so we are not concerned about that. Still our hands are very open, we can make peace with everyone. Nigerians are tired with this crisis and we want to show respect to Nigerians”, he said.
