NASS LEADERSHIP CRISIS: REPS EXCHANGE BLOWS

The House of Representatives yesterday failed to elect leaders as members went into a rowdy session over issues bothering on a letter from the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The trouble started when Rep Balarabe Salame (APC Sokoto), raised a point of order protesting that the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara had not read a conveyance from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the House which contained the party's stance on where principal offices should be zoned to.

However, issues got out of hand when other members obviously averse to the reading of the letter, came out in support of the Speaker which provoked Rep Aliyu Sani Madaki (APC Kano), who made for the mace, the symbol of authority of the House with the intent to cart it away.

Members were sighted exchanging blows, hitting one another with some others hurling chairs and other hard objects. A member of the House whose name was not certain had his dress torn in the ensuing fight.

The resistance from other members threw the entire House into uproar making plenary to be suspended for long time.

When the situation was brought under control at exactly 12.36pm, the Speaker addressing members on the need for unity said; “The incidence today is very unfortunate, as leaders, we must not behave like this. This is a House of Nigeria people, we can disagree but it must be to the unity of this House. We are very fortunate, a very fortunate class that out of over 170million Nigerians, only 360 were elected and we should be grateful to our constituents.

“We in the APC have promised change and Nigerians want us to talk about things that will help the people, so long as this House is divided we cannot achieve the expectations of the people. All hands must be on deck to achieve unity”

In separate reactions to the ugly incidence, both the caucuses of the APC and PDP blamed each other for what happened. The APC specifically targeted Speaker Dogara for not being a good party man.

Rep Nasir Sani Daura (APC Katsina), speaking at the press briefing of the APC caucus said; “the action that happened in the House is in reaction to Speaker Dogara's disregard to our party and the spirit of the party. Recall that the National Chairman wrote a letter to him dated June 23 conveying the party's stand with regards to the positions of Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Chief. Whip and Deputy WhIp which is in consonance with the party's House caucus, the extant House rule and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To our surprise, Dogara refused to read the letter.

“Speaker Dogara cannot choose how party leaders emerge, it is the party that does this. This action will not be allowed to stand as it will set a bad precedence capable of truncating our democracy. As for a zone producing more than one or two principals, there is nothing wrong with that. We are determined in our efforts to effectively utilize all democratic laws available to us”.

The PDP caucus in the House speaking also at a briefing through Rep Leo Ogor (PDP Delta), said what happened was quite unparliamentary especially from the APC members.

“Something very unparliamentary happened and there is need to put it in public domain. Clearly as you observed, after the Speaker made his entry, there was need to go into executive session but before that motion could be moved, the APC group went rowdy and they tried to carry the mace. Today was a wasted. It is unfortunate that today's crisis is from the ruling party.

The House speaking through the Chairman ad hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Sani Zoro apologized on what transpired in the day. Briefing the House Press Corps, Zoro said though it was not alien to Nigeria, the Speaker apologises on behalf of the House and that issues will be resolved while he as Speaker remained focused in his assigned role of leading the 8 House of Representatives.

The Speaker after his address adjourned the House till the 23 of July.

lso yesterday, the Senate defied the position of the APC on leadership positions as Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South on the platform of the APC defeated his opponent who represents Yobe north also on the platform of APC to emerge the Leader of the 8th session of the Senate.

This followed the reading of their nomination letters from their respective zonal caucuses by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in the red chamber.

Shortly after the Senate resumed plenary, Saraki read the letters addressed to him by the APC senate caucuses from the North East, North West and South South, which proclaimed Ndume, among others as the principal officers of the Senate.

According to the letter Saraki read, he said the North East Senate caucus had endorsed and nominated Senator Ali Ndume as the Majority Leader; while the North West caucus adopted Senator Bala Ibn Na'Allah as the Deputy Leader.

He added that the South South caucus members, according to their own letter, adopted Senator France Alimikhena as the Deputy Whip.

Saraki was however, silent on the Chief Whip because members of the South West caucus which should produce a representative did not write any letter.

He subsequently asked the Sergeant – at – Arms to lead the three principal officers to their respective seats to enable them assume office immediately.

Meanwhile, this was not without attempts by the senator representing Zamfara Central, Kabiru Marafa, to coarse Saraki to read the letter from the National Chairman of APC, John Odigie – Oyegun, in which the party listed their preferred candidate and directed the Senate President to act accordingly.

Meanwhile, the , PDP has condemned as a show of shame and national embarrassment, Thursday's fracas by disgruntled APC members in the House of Representatives saying the ugly development brings to question, President Muhammadu Buhari and his party's commitment to democracy, unity and the stability of the country.

The PDP said the disgraceful act is a direct consequence of President Buhari's lack of democratic credentials to reign in his party to respect the independence and sanctity of the legislative arm of government, the very citadel of democracy, as enshrined in the nation's constitution.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh in a statement on Thursday said “the barbaric attempt to physically assault a duly elected Speaker, seize the mace, the authority of the House, is a direct attack on the Nigerian parliament which embodies the supremacy of the people and our freedom as a democratic nation”.

The party said what Nigerians witnessed in the House on Thursday clearly underscores the fact that the APC has exhausted its excuses and has now imported its internal contradictions into an independent arm of government as a way to further cover its lack of ideas for governance.

“We state unequivocally that the onus lies on President Buhari to ensure that all democratic institutions are harnessed for effectiveness, a responsibility he has apparently abdicated by allowing his personal interest to instigate division in the parliament, a tendency that poses great threat to the survival of our democracy and the stability of the nation”, the PDP added.