Posted by By Ben Agande on
Members of the All Nigeria Peoples Party caucus in the House of Representatives yesterday impeached their leader, Hon. Ahmed Salik and elected another member, Hon. Aliyu Waziri Tambawal to replace him.
ABUJA - Members of the All Nigeria Peoples Party caucus in the House of Representatives yesterday impeached their leader, Hon. Ahmed Salik and elected another member, Hon. Aliyu Waziri Tambawal to replace him.
However, the leadership of the party said the action was a violation of the provisions of the party's constitution on resolution of crisis and as such invalid.
Addressing a press conference at the national assembly yesterday, the chairman of the interim committee set up by the caucus to oversee the affairs of the caucus since last week, Hon. Frank Ineke said the leader was impeached because of his failure to resign his position as demanded by members of the caucus.
The caucus had last week given its leaders a seven-day ultimatum within which to resign or be impeached. They were accused of compromising their positions and failure to provide purposeful leadership for the caucus.
Three of the four members of the caucus leadership resigned their positions but the leader; Hon. Ahmed Salik failed to resign. According to Hon. Ineke, at the expiration of the ultimatum, the caucus met and overwhelmingly voted to impeach the leader and appointed new ones.
Those elected into new positions were Hon. Victor Lar, whip, Hon. Almajiri Geidam, deputy leader while the former deputy leader, Hon. Ubong Etiebet was elected deputy whip. Hon. Ineke thanked members of the caucus for their maturity especially the former whip Usman Belkore who attended the press conference and pledged his support for the new leadership.
However in a letter to the former leader and copied the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Bello Masari, the national chairman of the party, Chief Don Etiebet said any difference amongst members of the caucus in the National Assembly must be referred to the National working committee of the party for arbitration.
The letter signed by Dr. Aniete Umoren stated that ‘‘the constitution of the party in article 17.3(iv) states that the legislative caucus should refer unresolved differences to the national working committee of the party for prompt arbitration. "It is pertinent to let you know here that the National caucus of the party only recently on the 7th of July set up two committees, one on ways and means of repositioning and reinvigoration the party and the other on new policy objectives. You are therefore to bring this to the notice and understanding of the members of your caucus immediately, that it will be inauspicious to effect any changes now in your caucus leadership.
"Any action other wise would contravene our party's constitution to which all your members are obligated, with dire consequences" he said. As a result of the letter from the national leadership of the party, the leadership of the House could not recognize the new leaders of the ANPP until all outstanding issues are resolved.