• Why PDP lawmakers are reluctant to fight for party
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is set to exact a pound of flesh from some of its members in the House of Representatives following their alleged complicit in thwarting a plot to impeach the Speaker, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal.
New Telegraph gathered from several sources yesterday that many of them contesting the forthcoming general election may be denied the party’s tickets.
Efforts to bar Tambuwal and his supporters last Thursday from entering the National Assemengaged a contingent of policemen deployed in the National Assembly to stop them in altercations.
Some of the lawmakers had to scale the fence of the National Assembly to attend the special session of the House to consider the request of President Goodluck Jonathan for an extension of the emergency rule.
Sources said the PDP was not happy with Deputy Speaker, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha; House Leader, Hon. Mulikat Akande- Adeola; Deputy Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor and Chief Whip, Hon. Isiaka Bawa for not “adequately defending its interest” in the legislature. It was learnt that the quartet might be denied tickets to run on the party’s platform in 2015 for their acts of omission or commission in the Tambuwal saga.
While Ihedioha is a PDP governorship aspirant in Imo State, Akande-Adeola, Ogor and Bawa are seeking return tickets to the House. These four principal officers of the House were summoned by the presidency hours after the fracas at the National Assembly.
They met with Vice- President Namadi Sambo and some top leaders of the PDP who berated them for their “serial failure” to defend the interests of their party in parliament.
New Telegraph also learnt that some security operatives, top bureaucrats and civil servants in the National Assembly might be punished for the same reason as the ruling party conducts its postmortem on the incident.
The police, it was learnt, were also investigating the matter to fish out all those culpable for the security lapses on that day and ascertain if there was any act of sabotage.
In the National Assembly, a probe has commenced to find out how the earlier plot not to give Tambuwal access to the mace, the symbol of authority, was also thwarted by some top civil servants.
Last Thursday’s siege on the National Assembly, New Telegraph gathered, was conceived by the leadership of the ruling party and targeted at fencing out Tambuwal from presiding over the extraordinary session he had summoned in response to the president’s letter.
The ruling party had made no pretences about its desire to push Tambuwal out of the seat since he defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on October 28.
In the thinking of the PDP, it would be the height of insult to have Tambuwal, now from a minority party, preside over a chamber dominated by legislators elected on the platform of the ruling party. Tambuwal, an insider source revealed, would have been eased out if the information was not leaked and the security operatives had handled their own side of the plot effectively.
The plot was, however, foiled as Tambuwal got detailed information about it the night before its execution and mobilised his supporters who forced their way through the security cordon. A source in the House said Tambuwal and the APC Caucus swung into action based on the leaked plot.
“This was why you saw them reacting violently and scaling the high gates of the National Assembly. They knew that if they did not get inside quickly, the PDP legislators could move a simple motion to impeach Tambuwal and mandate the deputy speaker to take over the affairs of the chamber.
“Ordinarily, you know these lawmakers are big men and would not like to be seen scaling the fence like schoolchildren but they did that out of desperation and fear of what may happen if they didn’t get into the chamber to defend their man,” a source said.
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that the reason behind the reluctance of the PDP Caucus in the House to defend the interests of their party by removing Tambuwal was because the ruling party had so far failed to guarantee them automatic tickets for the 2015 elections.
A member of the PDP Caucus in the House, who spoke to New Telegraph on the condition of anonymity, said the PDP legislators were not prepared to fight the opposition because their fate was uncertain.
“How do you go to fight for a party that has not shown interest in your future? These APC people can fight and die for Tambuwal and their party because they have automatic tickets to return here.
But we are here battling with people from our constituencies who want to take over our seats. The truth is that many of us will not return because these people who are after our seats have the backing of our governors.
So, how do you fight here when your home is not at peace? Even the presidency that promised some of us automatic tickets because of our support for Mulikat (House Leader) during the election has not actualised that promise; so that is why everybody is concentrating on how to survive the next election,” he said.
New Telegraph gathered that about 92 members of the PDP in the House who queued behind the candidate of the ruling party against Tambuwal were promised some rewards for their loyalty, a promise the ruling party has not kept till now.
Source: New Telegraph
