Posted by By GODWIN TSA, FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja, VAL OKARA, Owerri and UCHE USIM, Lagos on
Action-thirsty members of the Federal House of Representatives will today resume consideration of the David Idoko Panel report on the controversial N628 million contract scandal rocking the lower chamber since the past weeks.
Action-thirsty members of the Federal House of Representatives will today resume consideration of the David Idoko Panel report on the controversial N628 million contract scandal rocking the lower chamber since the past weeks.
For the Speaker, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh and other principal officers involved in the scam, it may be a day of reckoning as some representatives and a cross section of the public push for her to step down, arguing that she had lost all moral rights and credibility to continue to lead the House.
Against the backdrop of their support for the speaker, some, including Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a retired jurist, Justice Duke Njiribako, the Action Congress (AC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) chided her party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its leadership including governors, describing their role as despicable and capable of subverting Nigeria's fledgling democracy.
They urged the representatives to do what is right, that is remove and sanction the erring officers.
However, asserting that she had nothing to hide, having given her own side of the story appertaining to the contract award for the renovation of her official residence, Etheh yesterday assured Nigerians that there would be no rancour or ill-feelings towards the fundamental principles of the debate on the issue when it comes up.
In a statement by her media consultant, Olumide Lawal, she vowed to "ensure that all relevant documents concerning the report are made available to all the legislators, so as to give room for thorough analysis of same and comments freely made by them."
Etteh called for understanding and patience on the part of all stakeholders, saying she bore no grudge towards anybody over various comments on the contract award, even as far as those jostling for her chair are concerned.
The release claimed that the number of legislators on the side of the Speaker had risen to more than 270 and that these had resolved to make the debate at the plenary session as lively as possible, "even where the minority anti-Etteh group may want to sow seed of discord."
The raging verbal war is coming as the crisis in the House took on a legal dimension. Four lawyers on Monday dragged the speaker before a Federal High Court in Abuja, pressing for an order of the court to stop her from presiding over the sittings of the House while the Idoko panel report is being considered.
Also joined in the suit filed by four legal practitioners are the Clerk of the National Assembly and the Attorney General of the Federation.
In the suit, the plaintiffs, Izy Abuchi Nwaifu, Ameh Adejoh, Emmanuel Eke and Abdullahi Ahamed, are praying the court for an order restraining the Speaker of the House of Representatives from presiding over the sittings of the House over a matter that is of criminal character which ought to be inquired into by a court of competent jurisdiction.
In addition, the plaintiffs are also requesting from the court, an order compelling the speaker to disqualify herself from sittings to consider the report of the ad-hoc Committee having been accused whether rightly or wrongly of allegations that are of a criminal nature.
The suit is supported with a 15-paragraphs affidavit deposed to by Izu Abuchi Nwaiwu.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the originating summons which has been served to all the parties in the action.
The quartet have a supporter in Chief Fawehinmi. In a statement he issued on Monday, the Senior Advocate and anti-corruption crusader maintained that Etteh had lost the moral authority to even continue in office and her integrity to lead the House.
He observed that the findings of the Idoko panel "confirmed the mess, the corruption and the abuse of office" allegedly perpetrated by the Speaker which, he said, violated Sections 15 (5) and 23 of the constitution.
Fawehinmi urged Etteh to take a cue from two past Senate presidents, Dr Chuba Okadigbo and Senator Adolphus Wabara who stepped aside following allegations of graft leveled against them.
In addition, he wants the Speaker to resign after the consideration of the report.
"That is the path of honour. However, if she chooses the path of stubborn perfidy which characterizes the behaviour of our corrupt politicians, the House of Representatives should remove her in the interest of: (a) Constitutional order and morality; and (b) dignity and respectability of the office.
"Party loyalty has no place in this respect because the nation and the constitution are bigger, more commanding and more important than party allegiance in the face of corruption and immorality."
The NLC took on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its leaders, especially Dr. Ahmadu Ali as well as the governors, for drumming up support for the embattled house leaders, describing their roles in the saga as ‘despicable.'
Labour asked the PDP representatives to ignore the party leaders and go ahead to show the speaker and other principal officers of the house the exit, while tasking them that they "have the historic duty to cleanse the house of the odium brought on it and on the nation by the N628 million renovation scandal."
Lampooning the PDP National Chairman as never aversed to corruption, the Congress in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Mr. John Odah, said: very "despicable has been the role of the PDP leadership, especially its chairman, Colonel Ahmadu Ali. The support for the House' leadership canvassed by the leadership of the PDP is a sad commentary on the acute poverty of values inherent in the ruling party."
NLC condemned in strong terms the role of the PDP Governors, whom it alleged had "directed" members of the House to ensure that the Speaker is retained notwithstanding the clear evidence of subversion of due process. "This so-called directive is patently immoral.
The PDP governors have exceeded their bounds and have now launched an affront on the collective sensitivity of Nigerians. They have also demonstrated that among the ruling party governors, corruption is an accepted way of life. The net effect of the posture of the PDP governors and the party is to severely erode the confidence of the people in the President's avowal of determination to combat corruption."
A retired High Court Judge, Justice Njiribako advised the leadership of the PDP to distance itself from any plan to save the Speaker on her current ordeal.
The retired jurist in an interview with Daily Sun in Owerri at the weekend said that no ethnic consideration should be brought into the matter, advising those who were already colouring it so to desist from such campaign.
According to him, it would be wrong for anybody or group of persons including her party to throw their weight behind her. " It is wrong for anybody or group of persons or the party to throw their weight behind her. We should know that anything that is wrong is wrong anywhere. It doesn't help us if it (matter) is made an ethnic matter, the Yoruba should stop it. It is not right."
The Action Congress (AC) called on the PDP to give Nigeria's democracy a chance to survive by prevailing on Etteh to step down when the Idoko panel report comes up for debate in the House today, instead of throwing the House into avoidable crisis.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also urged Mrs. Etteh to quit the stage, if only to salvage whatever was left of her own integrity as well as to preserve the office of the Speaker.
It said with its overwhelming control of the House of Representatives, it is clear that no new Speaker can emerge without the backing of the PDP.
"We therefore wonder why the PDP is bent on sinking with Etteh at all cost. Is there no other credible candidate for the post in the entire House? Or is the PDP confirming our worst fears that men and women of integrity have taken flight from the PDP?
"Why must our hard-earned democracy, watered by the blood of many patriots, go down with Etteh or the PDP? What is so special about this woman that even when she has been indicted by a panel populated by her party members, the party insists on sticking by her at all costs?" the AC querried.