As Gbajabiamila moves against opposition BY ABDUL LATEEF TAIWO

The House of Representatives of the 9th National Assembly is fast becoming a theatre of absurdities less than one month after its inauguration. A faction of the All Progressives Congress, APC and the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have launched a fresh plot to impeach the Speaker, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila. Over the weekend, the National Secretariat of the PDP in continuity with the meeting of the party’s caucus in the House announced the suspension of Ndudi Elumelu, the factional Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and others for alleged anti-party activities, fallout of their alleged romance with Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

The main opposition made this known on Friday evening in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan. The party also suspended Wole Oke, Lynda Ikpeazu, Anayo Edwin, Gideon Gwadi, Toby Okechukwu and Adekoya Abdul-Majid.

The PDP had nominated Chukwuka Onyema as Deputy Minority Leader, Yakubu Barde as Minority Whip and Muraina Ajibola as Deputy Minority Whip. But the Speaker had nominated the suspended members in their stead. The announcement of a different set of lawmakers caused confusion in the parliament on Wednesday and Thursday, last week with members breaking into a fight.

Shortly after the rowdy session in the chamber, the PDP caucus, met on Thursday in the National Assembly to discuss the next line of action which will include a vote of no confidence on the Gbajabiamila-led House of Representatives. The meeting at the National Assembly by the PDP members in the house culminated into the invitation of Elumelu and his faction. But barely 24 hours later, the PDP National Secretariat announced the suspension of Elumelu and others.

According to Mr Ologbondiyan, the party’s decision was a resolution of the National Working Committee who sat on Friday to review the issue. “The Party noted the roles played by the under listed members which resulted in the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, reading another list for Minority Leadership of the House other than the list submitted to him by our party, the PDP,” he said.

“After preliminary examination by the NWC, it was evident that the roles played by the above-mentioned members, bordered on indiscipline, insubordination and disobedience of party directives contrary to Section 58 (1)(b)(c)(f)(h) of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017), which provides that…”

But Ndudi Elumelu (PDP-Delta) has expressed shock over his suspension by the leadership of the PDP. Elumelu had in a statement made available to AljazirahNigeria, said that he was surprised that NWC of the party would suspend him without a fair hearing. The NWC had earlier invited Elumelu and other minority principal officers of the house to appear before the committee and explain how they emerged principal officers against the will of the party, but Elumelu said he lost an aunt and left Abuja immediately after Thursday’s plenary for Delta.

The statement read: “I am surprised and shocked, that the National Working Committee of our great party, the PDP can sit and take a decision without giving room for a fair hearing. I had expected that if the date we suggested was not convenient for the party, they would have proposed another day when we could appear before them.”

Speaking with AljazirahNigeria on the sideline after the meeting of the PDP members in the House, Mr. Terseer Mark Gbilah, (Gwer/Gwer West) Benue State, the spokesperson of the group said on the action of Gbajabiamila in the nomination of the minority leaders: “Definitely, this is another fallout by the inducement that was displayed on the floor of the House, during the inauguration, with members taking pictures, video recording their ballot papers. A lot of those who are of PDP extraction seems to have been carried away, making decisions in this regard against the party’s position and I believe this is a continuation of that circumstance and they believe those.