Tambuwal under pressure to sack APC principal officers

Tambuwal under pressure to sack APC principal officers

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, has come under pressure to reconstitute some of the standing committees of the House.

SUNDAY PUNCH learnt the pressure was a fallout of Monday’s judgment by an Abuja Federal High Court, which declared the defection of 37 former Peoples Democratic Party members of the House to the rival All Progressives Congress as unconstitutional.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola, among others, also advised the lawmakers to resign from the House and stop any further participation in the activities of the House, including sponsoring motions.

The court also barred the 37 from seeking to effect a change in the leadership of the House.

The judgement, tagged “controversial and strange” by the APC caucus, has already been appealed by the affected legislators.

But, findings showed that, the PDP caucus in the House has insisted that the lawmakers “must suffer” for their action of “attempting to disgrace the PDP.”

Some of the 37 are chairmen of key committees in the House. Among them are Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Mr. Dakuku Peterside; Chairman, Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed; Chairman, Committee on Justice, Mr. Ali Ahmad; Chairman, Committee on Judiciary, Mr. Aminu Shagari; and Chairman, Committee on Public Service Matters, Mr. Andrew Uchendu.

On Wednesday, Tambuwal’s quick intervention had dissuaded the PDP caucus from asking the 37 to stay out of the chambers.

A source conversant with the development confided in SUNDAY PUNCH thus, “You will recall that the Speaker hurriedly called an executive session to defuse tension between the two sides.

“The House leadership preached peace and harmony at the closed-door meeting; but apparently, the PDP members are not satisfied.

“One of the demands now is that they want the Speaker to reconstitute some of the committees.

“The thinking is that you cannot be an opposition member and want to hold on to our committees.

“They consider some of these committees as committees that should ordinarily be chaired by the majority party.”

Investigations showed the caucus was specific about the House spokesman, whom the group accused of not taking a neutral position when speaking lately on House matters because he was considered an “interested party.”

It was learnt that after the peace meeting of Wednesday, the PDP caucus held another meeting where members allegedly resolved to ensure that the party assumed “firm control of the House.”

When contacted for comments, the Deputy House Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, tried to parry the matter, but told SUNDAY PUNCH that there was no meeting where the “issue of reconstituting committees was discussed in detail.”

Ogor stated that decisions on who heads a committee were the prerogative of the speaker.

“These are not decisions taken based on political party lines, though it is the Speaker that has the power to appoint committee chairmen”, he added.

He claimed to be unaware that the caucus was mounting pressure on Tambuwal to alter the headship of some committees.

One senior member, who did not want to be named, told SUNDAY PUNCH the caucus had resolved they would no longer work with “certain committee chairmen.”