— Drama as IGP won’t recognise speaker at dialogue
By Bode Olagoke and Joshua Egbodo, Abuja
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, yesterday in Abuja had a closed-door meeting with the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun, at the party’s national secretariat, in a bid to strategise against moves to impeach the speaker by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
The speaker, who arrived the secretariat at about 12 noon, was received at the office of the Deputy National Chairman, North, of the party, Senator Shu’aibu Lawal, due to the absence of the national chairman, for about two hours.
Sources close to the deputy chairman informed Blueprint that the meeting was not unconnected to the crisis recently witnessed at the National Assembly and to plan ahead of any possible move against Tambuwal.
Though no official reasons were given for the visit, feelers around the secretariat said Tambuwal’s presence at the national office was not unconnected with the crisis at the National Assembly which has assumed a “disturbing dimension” with the lawmakers in the House raising 50 impeachable offences against President Goodluck Jonathan.
Another reason, the source said, might be Tambuwal’s governorship ambition in Sokoto state.
It was gathered that his ambition has sparked off controversy amongst the aspirants of the office in the state.
When asked further to respond to questions of the state of affairs in the House and his governorship ambition, Tambuwal, who drove himself to the office, resorted to jokes, saying, “Are you not tired of hearing from me? I am tired of speaking. No, no, it is not a meeting. It is just a nominal meeting.”
Confirming the meeting with the national chairman, the party’s National Publicity, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the speaker was at liberty to meet with the national chairman of the party any time he likes.
Mohammed also stated that the political battle has shifted to the National Assembly, especially in the House of Representatives.
“He is the speaker. He can see the national chairman of the party any time. Don’t forget that the battle today has shifted to the National Assembly. The political battle today is no longer in the state, it is at the centre and at the National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives. So, normally, you are going to see the speaker in constant consultation with the national chairman and the leadership of the party.”
Meanwhile, a House of Representatives investigative hearing into last Thursday’s police attack on the National Assembly was yesterday brought into abrupt end, as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, refused to recognise Tambuwal as speaker.
The House Committee on Police Affairs had, following the attack in which lawmakers were tear-gassed, summoned Abba to appear the following day (Friday), but rescheduled the meeting for yesterday when the IGP sent in a DIG in his stead, insisting that Abba must appear in person.
Angered that in the course of his presentation at the meeting, Abba merely referred to the speaker as Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, members of the committee wanted to know if he recognised Tambuwal as the speaker, to which he said an answer “would amount to subjudice since the matter is in court.”
Abba, while defending the role of his men that day, insisted that the police acted based on “credible information” in introducing the operational frisking of entrants to the National Assembly complex last Thursday, and with a view to forestalling the Burkina Faso experience where on October 20, 2014, hoodlums invaded its parliament and set the building ablaze, adding that the operation was going on smoothly until the arrival of “Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, when chaos erupted, and his men were beaten up.”
Chairman of the committee, Usman Kumo, had alongside his colleagues, demanded that Tambuwal be properly recognised by the IGP.
“I demand on behalf of the 360 members that sat and elected him, that you acknowledge Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as speaker and allow the judiciary to discharge its constitutional responsibility on this matter.”
Earlier, a member of the committee, Ahmed Rufai Chanchangi, during the routine introduction, also emphatically told Abba that he did not recognise him “as the IGP, but as Alhaji Suleiman Abba.”
Another member of the committee, Muniru Hakeem, and some of his colleagues later threatened to leave the meeting if the IGP, who he described as “an appointee of an arm of government,” chose to disrespect the speaker whom they elected to lead them.
The chairman had to call for a motion to the effect that the meeting be adjourned indefinitely when it was obvious that Abba was not ready to bow to their demands.
“We have come. We have asked questions. We have taken notes and we would report everything the way it is to the larger house,” he ruled.
The IGP, who blamed the entire saga on the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), which the day earlier held a rally at Eagle Square, and afterward moved in a procession to the Louis Edet House Police Force headquarters, where its leaders issued threats to cause mayhem, even at the National Assembly and the INEC, a development and other information he said prompted the “additional deployment to the National Assembly” that day.
Describing the tear gas incident as unfortunate, Abba however said it accidentally exploded.
“There were quite a number of suspected thugs at the second gate which led to the gate being locked and security reinforced. Unfortunately, a tear gas exploded and the circumstances of the explosion is being investigated,” he said.
