Following the fracas that ensued at the National
Assembly complex on Thursday, 20 November, it
is believed that over 120 lawmakers have
appended their signatures for the impeachment of
President Goodluck Jonathan.
The impeachment process against Jonathan is
expected to commence as soon as the House
reconvenes in December.
It was gathered that the lawmakers that
appended their signatures belong to the
opposition party, All Progressives Congress.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media and
Public Affairs, Mohammed Zakari reacted to the
incident, saying that: “The notice of impeachment
was not on the order paper today but I’m not
foreclosing that some other things took place.”
Meanwhile, Deputy House Leader, Leo Ogor
implored the lawmakers to do away with the
impeachment plans, arguing that the notice of
impeachment is of no consequence because the
President was not complicit in what transpired at
the National Assembly.
Ogor said: “The President is unaware so bringing
it (impeachment) up is going to be defeated. The
President has done no wrong, impeachment
should not even be part of the issue.”
It is also believed that the lawmakers attempted
to move for impeachment of Deputy Speaker,
Emeka Ihedioha, during the brief closed door
session, but the move was truncated by the
Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has
rejected further extension of emergency rule in the
three troubled states of Adamawa, Borno and
Yobe states.
Zakari stated: “We have not extended the
emergency rule, rather we have asked the
president to rely on section 8 of the Armed Forces
Act which empowers him to deploy the military to
troubled spots of the country. If we had approved
this today it would have been the fourth on the
series.”
“You remember the request for emergency rule
started in May 2013 and therefore we had done
three extensions. In anything you are doing, you
should be able to take stock; you will be able to
see whether or not that action you are taking is
yielding results. We will be doing more good if Mr
President relies on that more.”
“Because if we are adopting a particular style and
it is not giving us the desired result, we should be
able to change it. The armed forces act
empowers him to deploy soldiers to troubled
parts of this country for them to take necessary
action. This issue was looked at critically at the
executive session and we came to this
conclusion.”
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