PDP Replies Oshiomhole On ‘Taking All’ National Assembly Principal Offices

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has tackled the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, over his statement that the ruling party will not allow PDP lawmakers-elect to occupy any presiding office in the 9th National Assembly.

Oshiomhole had at a meeting with elected senators and House of Representatives members of the APC on Monday charged the lawmaker-elect not to allow PDP members occupy any principal office in the next NASS.

“A PDP person will not be speaker, A PDP person will not be deputy speaker, A PDP person will not be whip, A PDP person will not be leader, A PDP person will not take any of the committees that are meant for the ruling party. We are determined to achieve that,” said the APC Chairman.

But reacting through its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Tuesday, the PDP said its members can seek any National Assembly office including principal offices as they are “not the exclusive preserves of any political party.”

According to Ologbondiyan, “The PDP notes that the position of the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker are not the exclusive preserves of any political party, but a constitutional right of every elected lawmaker in both chambers.”

The opposition party said, “It is therefore laughable and amounts to empty grandstanding and self-delusion for President Muhammadu Buhari and the factional National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to posture as if the presiding offices and Committee Chairmanship in the National Assembly are exclusive rights of the APC.”

“President Buhari and Oshiomhole should wake up to the fact that the National Assembly belongs to no political party but to all Nigerians, who exercise their control through their elected representatives.

“For emphasis, Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear in providing that “There shall be:- (a) a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves”.

“Section 92 (1) makes the same provision for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of State House of Assembly.

“The PDP, therefore, does not only have a constitutional say in the process of the emergence of the leadership of the 9th National Assembly, but will, as a matter of constitutional right, field candidates into presiding offices of both chambers, if need be.

“The PDP wishes to remind President Buhari and Oshiomhole that the APC had in the past benefited from the provisions of section 50, with the defection of then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal from the PDP to the APC, in October 2014, without relinquishing the speakership of the House to the PDP; a development that was applauded by President Buhari, as then opposition leader as well as the APC, through its then National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed.

“In fact, the former Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, echoed the Constitutional provision that “the constitution requires only that the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be elected by members of that House from among themselves”.

“Moreover, in June 2015, Hon. Terkimbi Ikyange and Hon. Peter Azi, both of APC, were elected Speakers of Benue and Plateau State Houses of Assembly respectively, though their party, the APC, was minority in both Houses.

“The PDP notes that the party offices in the legislature are the Majority and Minority Leaders and Deputy Leaders as well as Majority and Minority Whips and Deputy Whips, and our party will take decisions on this in due course.

“The PDP therefore cautions President Buhari, Oshiomhole and the APC to respect the independence of the legislature, end their imposition plot and sowing of seeds of discord among the lawmaker, as such is directly against our overall national interest,” said the PDP.