Reps: We won’t support Buhari’s impeachment

The House of Representatives said last night that it would not support any

attempt to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari.
The House said through its spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa)
that the impeachment being muted by some senators would not in any way get
the support of the lawmakers from the House “because there’s no reason for
that.”
Some senators loyal to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had last Tuesday
muted the idea of impeaching the president in view of the ongoing forgery trial
against Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.
The Senate had summoned the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister
of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over the forgery suit, but he did not honour their
invitation.
At a closed-door session that lasted for over an hour, Senator Enyinnaya
Abaribe (PDP, Abia) suggested that the Senate should “go for the jugular,” and
when his colleagues asked what he meant by that, he reportedly said that they
should commence an impeachment process against the president.
Following the impeachment speculations, the ruling All Progressives Congress
(APC) described the move as “laughable” and “a joke taken too far.”
But the Senate, through its spokesman, on Thursday denied that there was any
plot to impeach the president, saying the APC leadership reacted to mere
speculation and fabrication on a purported plan to impeach President Buhari.
“We expected the party to at least explore all the options open to it to verify
that piece of fabrication which is only the figment of the imagination of the
writers and their sponsors. It should be clear to the APC leadership that if there
is any truth to that story, it should have been credited to a particular Senator
who was at the executive session.
“It is evident from our proceedings of yesterday (Wednesday) that the Senate
itself was shocked that such a fabrication which constitute a breach of the
privileges of the Senators was published and that was why we mandated our
committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to investigate the source
and circumstances leading to the emergence of such a fabrication,” he said.
However, Namdas told Daily Trust last night that the House would not support
any move to impeach the president. He said: “The president has not done
anything to warrant that. We’re with the president. This is a Senate matter, but
even at that, we won’t support it, because we don’t have any reason to do
that. Impeachment is not even in our agenda.
“Let me say that we have no intention of impeaching the president. For us, the
president has not committed any impeachable offence. In fact, if anything, we’re
working hard to cement our good working relationship with the president for the
benefit of Nigerians.
“As a House for Nigerians, we can’t support such move because the president
has not done anything to warrant that. So, it’s not part of our agenda at all.”
Similarly, the Chief Whip of the House, Alhassan Ado Doguwa (APC, Kano), told
the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi yesterday that there was no single
evidence of impeachable offence against President Buhari.
“As far as I am concerned, I am a member of House of Representatives and a
principal officer of the House; the National Assembly is a twin institution; we
have the House and we have the Senate.
“If there is any insinuation or speculation about the impeachment of Mr
President in any chamber rather than the House of Representatives, that, I don’t
know.
“But I want to be very straight forward to you that we don’t have such a
consideration before us; that matter is not even being contemplated; it was not
even at any point in time thought of,” he said.
“After all, we do not have any evidence of impeachable offence with which to
use against Mr President. It is mere speculation on the street and should be left
at that level,” he added.
APC governors, in Benin, the Edo State capital, at the weekend, also said they
would resist any attempt to impeach the president.
Dailytrust