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‘PDP Senators, Reps eligible to contest any choice office’

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PDP spokesman



The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says its elected lawmakers at the Senate and House of Representatives are eligible to seek election into any office of both chambers of the National Assembly in spite of  their number.

The party said this in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Tuesday in Abuja.

It said 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 were not the exclusive preserve of a political party with the highest numbers of members in the two chambers.

The party explained that the positions of presiding officers are constitutional rights of every elected lawmaker in the both chambers.

PDP said it was laughable and and self-delusion for the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to posit as if the presiding offices and Committee Chairmanship in the National Assembly were exclusive rights of the APC.

It said 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’.

“Also 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.”

PDP recalls 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, Aminu Tambuwal from the PDP to the APC, in October 2014, without relinquishing the Speakership of the House to the PDP.

It recalled that the development 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, 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 said that the party offices in the legislature were the Majority and Minority Leaders and Deputy Leaders as well as Majority and Minority Whips and Deputy Whips, and PDP party would take decisions on this in due course.

The party advised Oshiomhole and the APC to respect the independence of the legislature.

 

 

NAN

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