Reps in rowdy session over move to disband minority leadership

THE House of Representatives on Tuesday, witnessed a rowdy session, following the move by the Deputy House Leader, Honourable Leo Ogor, to have minority leadership of the House disbanded.

Trouble started when Honourable Ogor raised Privileges Order, standing on order 19 (1) (2), where he maintained that the leadership of the minority in the House should be disbanded, saying the present occupiers were All Progressives Congress (APC) members.

The development, he said, was in breach of the House Rules as it affected composition of minority leadership positions.

He added that the House rules provided that minority parties and not a party of the House should form the minority leadership.

According to him, “it behoves on the minority parties in line with item 31 of the House Rules, to nominate among themselves a new minority leader, minority whip, deputy minority leader and deputy minority whip.”

He stressed further that, “lawmakers sitting on the platform of the APC now were members of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Accord Party and others, and, therefore are unknown to the House and since they were not a part of the nomination process for the leadership of the minority,  APC members must, therefore, vacate their seats.”

He, however, noted that members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP) and Accord Party should have a stake in the formation of the minority leadership, since the other opposition parties have formed APC.

Minority leader, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, faulted Honourable Ogor’s motion, saying the motion should have been raised by an opposition member instead of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker.

He added that “under our Rules of Privilege, you have to have locus before raising such a motion. If this matter of privilege was raised by a member of the opposition, then it will have locus. Our rules do not create room for a meddlesome interlopers. I have seen a letter nominating our leaders sitting here, but I have not seen any letter nominating any PDP member sitting as a principal officer.”

At this point, the Deputy Speaker, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, called on key opposition members to speak on the issue raised by Honourable Ogor.

Leader of APGA caucus in the House, Honourable Lilian Ekwunife, said “I want to say who goes to equity, goes with clean hands. Since the formation of APC, we the opposition have not met to decide who will take positions. Rules 32,33, 35 and 36 define roles of different political parties and these provisions provide that all opposition parties must be represented on the leadership of the opposition.”

Speaking on behalf of Labour Party, Honourable Debo Ologunagba maintained that “composition of the opposition leadership violates our privileges as Labour Party members.”

Honourable Abiola Ajaja, who spoke on behalf of Accord Party, also insisted that the composition of minority leadership as currently constituted violated the privilege of her party.

Ruling on the motion, Honourable Ihedioha referred it to House Committees on Rules and Business and Justice for further legislative action.

Reps in rowdy session over move to disband minority leadership