Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, on Thursday took a swipe on the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government for failing Ngerians, as members on platform of the ruling party celebrated the defection of a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Promise Dike.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila had midway into the plenary read a letter by the lawmaker, announcing his defection to the APC, citing division within the PDP, and also being attracted by “the leadership coordination in the APC” amidst cheers from members of the ruling party.
Drama however ensued, when the Speaker dragged Elumelu into the conversation by insisting that he had remained too quiet over the development, prompting the Minority Leader to condemn the celebration of defections, when insecurity and other challenges were rife in the country.
“We have issues which should be more important to the APC-led government. There is insecurity in the country; killings, kidnapping. An Emir who just came for a visa so he could travel for a medical check-up was recently kidnapped. Until APC provide security of lives and property for Ngerians, there can never be peace. There is unemployment, infrastructural decay, and to worsen it, debt that have been cancelled is now….”, Elumelu said amidst interjections by the Speaker.
Gbajabiamila in response asked Elumelu to open his copy of the House’s rule to page 53, and read Order 9, Rule 5. But the lawmaker declined. Spokesman of the House, Benjamin Kalu however stood up and read the referred segment which bothers on relevance of debates to the subject matter on the floor.
With that, the Speaker ruled Elumelu out of order.
Gbajabiamila had earlier jokingly directed the clerk to update the register of the House, to ensure the number of members on each political party.
“It appears we are no longer the number we started with,” he stated.
