Posted by By JAMES OJO, Abuja on
Integrity Group in the House of Representatives has promised to shock the pro -Etteh group, who are still basking in the euphoria of having majority of members when it is time for debate and voting on the Idoko reports that indicted the Speaker, Mrs. Olubunmi Etteh of breach of due process in the process leading to the award of contracts to renovate her official residence and that of her deputy.
Integrity Group in the House of Representatives has promised to shock the pro -Etteh group, who are still basking in the euphoria of having majority of members when it is time for debate and voting on the Idoko reports that indicted the Speaker, Mrs. Olubunmi Etteh of breach of due process in the process leading to the award of contracts to renovate her official residence and that of her deputy.
Expectations of the group is that the embattled Speaker would throw in the towel and offer an apology for throwing members of the House and the nation in general into unnecessary distractions , since the submission of the 9-man panel that probed the award of the renovation contracts.
Whether the Speaker resigns from office or not before debate of the Idoko reports commences, the task of the group, according to Hon. Emmanuel Jime was to ensure that Mrs Etteh ceased being the Speaker of the House.
Jime, it would be recalled was one the members who pummeled his colleague at the venue of the public sitting of the panel, while reacting to the applause for the Speaker, the first day she was to give her testimony.
The representative of Markudi/Doma Federal Constituency of Benue State and a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly told Saturday Sun that the embattled Speaker would be sanctioned ,based on the findings of the panel she rightly constituted.
Emmanuel Jime, disclosed further that Mrs Etteh's days as the Speaker of the House was numbered as there was no way she would clear herself of abuse of the oath she swore to uphold.
‘Anybody who could read between the lines, would agree with Integrity Group that the honest thing for the Speaker to do was to resign her appointment because the nation does not deserve the trauma of the last few weeks.In a decent society, where people are honourable, a public office holder would not wait to be subjected to the kind of probing that had exposed the National Assembly to opprobrium before throwing in the towel and apologize to the nation', the federal lawmaker submitted .
‘If the Speaker had taken into consideration the mood of the nation, we should by now have a new speaker that would command the respect of members and the public'.‘
Can't preside over her case
‘The resignation of the Speaker, Jime said would be in fulfillment of the norms that you can not be a judge in a case where you have an interest. Madam Speaker is at the center of the reports of the contracts she wrongly awarded and we are to debate the reports; must she need anybody to tell her to vacate the seat?
‘I don't think so, more so that we have a precedent in the Senate whereby, the late Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory vacated his seat to enable the Senate debate the report of the contract for streetlights, which was not up to half of the one in question in the House.'
For the embattled Speaker to ignore voice of reason by insisting to preside over the affairs of the House, Jime said it would amount to contravening the golden principle of law that you cannot be a judge in a case involving you or your interest.
The impotence of technicality
The former Speaker of Benue State House of Assembly described as sad, postulations from the camp of the Speaker that the House rule does not provide for a Speaker Ex-Tempore, whenever the Speaker or the Deputy was in attendance.
It is most unfortunate that some members wanted to hide under the rules of the House that did not capture a scenario like we are having at hands.
But then, the House was at liberty to borrow laws outside the House like from the Constitution and even from House of the Lords ,to find a way out of the present situation that we found ourselves.
We have instrument of laws and criminal codes that could be employed to get justice and restore the dignity of the House, particularly when the House rules did not capture a situation like we have at hands now.
Those who are hinging on the facts that the House rules did not provide for the appointment of Speaker Ex-Tempore when the elected Speaker is sitting are not aware that the House is not strictly bound to the rules of the House…, all the grounds leading to the conclusion of the panel was enough for the Speaker to have tendered her resignation letter.
Jime said that the Integrity Group believed in the verdict of the panel, which was consistent with its terms of reference, to unveil the truth behind the contracts and would want the Speaker to act wisely by tendering her resignation letter before the commencement of debate on Tuesday.