BREAKING: National Assembly calls off Tuesday reconvening

John Ameh

The National Assembly will not reconvene on Tuesday (tomorrow), The PUNCH has just learnt, contrary to public expectation.

At the House of Representatives, its spokesman, Mr Abdulrazak Namdas, told The PUNCH that the House in truth, had yet to decide on a reconvening date.

Ironically, it was the Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr Yussuff Lasun, who, last week, announced that the National Assembly would reconvene on Tuesday (tomorrow) to consider the budget for the 2019 polls and other pending issues forwarded to lawmakers by President Muhammadu Buhari in July.

Punch

Saraki May Declare Akpabio, Other PDP Defectors’ Seats Vacant

A senator from the North-Central geopolitical zone and an ally of Saraki said trouble could start on resumption when the APC caucus would definitely demand a roll call so that senators who defected to its fold could sit with their party members for easy identification.

“For now, I am not aware of any division or faction in the PDP at the moment that could warrant the action of Akpabio and others.

“The Senate President is expected to exercise his constitutional powers now to declare the seats of Akpabio and others’ vacant until they are able to justify the reasons for their defection.

“We know that the development would provoke an uproar, but the Senate President would remain resolute. So, the only option that would be left for Akpabio and his co-travellers would be to approach the court to determine whether there is actually a division in the PDP or not.

“Until the procurement of the legal interpretation of their status, those who defected from the PDP would be barred from entering the premises of the National Assembly.

“They will probably remain in court till the end of the current 8th Assembly.”

However, members of the APC caucus at the Senate alleged that Saraki withheld their defection letters from the PDP sent to the upper chamber.

The APC senators further alleged that Saraki, who read out the letter in which 13 lawmakers defected from the APC to the PDP and another one to the African Democratic Congress on July 24, refused to read the letters from those who dumped the opposition party for the ruling party.

The Senate President has however denied the allegation, challenging those who claimed to have written to him to declare their defections to publish their letters.

Speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday, an APC senator accused Saraki of ignoring the defection letters.

“Saraki has been proving smart by not reading letters of defections from the PDP. Until that was done, those affected have technically not defected. He is not reading the letters and it is deliberately so. As a result, in the records of the National Assembly, PDP is 57 while we are 48.

Reacting to the allegation, Saraki, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, denied keeping defection letters.

He said, “There is no senator whose letter is still pending. It is a lie, we don’t have such letters. When did they write and send the letters? Did they show you the copies? They need to make available the acknowledgement copies.”

Punch ng

Native Reporters

AgegePulse

Why I Ordered Invasion Of National Assembly” — Lawal Daura Opens Up

The sacked Director General of the Department of State Security Service, Lawal Musa Daura, has confessed that he deployed hooded operatives of the secret service to the National Assembly on Tuesday.

based on intelligence report that unauthorized persons were planning to smuggle dangerous weapons and incriminating items into the complex.

His confession was disclosed in the interim investigation report submitted by the Inspector General of Police, Idris Ibrahim to the acting president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

In the report seen by Daily Trust, IGP Idris argued that Daura carried out the siege on the National Assembly without the approval of the acting president.

“The former Director-General, Department of State Security Service, Mr Lawal Musa Daura acted unilaterally without informing the presidency. He did not share or intimate other security agencies on the unlawful operations,” Idris said in the report.

The IGP said the purported intelligence report by Daura cannot be substantiated as the personnel deployed were not EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) experts or specialist in this regard.

Masked and unmasked DSS operatives laid siege to the National Assembly on Tuesday halting lawmakers and staff from gaining entry into the complex.

A female member of the House of Representatives, Boma Goodhead from Rivers State (PDP) confronted the DSS men laying siege at the National Assembly, daring them to shoot her.

The Acting President, who sacked Daura over the invasion described the unauthorized takeover of the National Assembly complex as a gross violation of the constitutional order, rule of law and all accepted notions of law and order.

The leaders of both the Senate and House of Representatives also condemned the siege as a “coup against democracy”.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) hailed the invasion in what it called ‘timely intervention’ of the Department of State Services (DSS) in scuttling plot by Senate President Bukola Saraki to cause chaos at the National Assembly on Tuesday.





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