By: Felix Ikpotor
Some lawmakers from Rivers State are now backing the call by Kingsley Chinda, member representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari over insecurity in the country.
They also carpeted the House of Representatives for threatening to take disciplinary measures against Chinda.
PHSPectator recalls that the House of Representatives few days ago threatened to take disciplinary measures against the caucus leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, Kingsley Ogundu Chinda for calling for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The House Majority Leader, Ado Doguwa, said that Hon. Chinda was not representing the position of the PDP caucus of the House as he claims and is acting alone.
He also noted that the President’s decision not to honour the House was due to the utterances of the lawmaker calling for his impeachment, and concerns that the President would be embarrassed if he honoured the invitation.
Hon. Chinda in a press release on December 7, called on Nigerians irrespective of political party, tribe, or religion to compel their representatives to commence the impeachment process against the President.
The lawmaker’s call for impeachment is not unconnected with the rising cases of insecurity being witnessed across the country.
Chinda while responding to the threat said he has the mandate of his constituent to call for the impeachment of the president.
However, House spokesman Hon. Benjamin Kalu described Chinda’s call as the “opinion of a single member of the opposition party in the house.”
He said calls for impeachment were not logical as the President is yet to appear before the House to explain what his administration is doing to address the security issue.
“If this call came post-President’s visit for the failure to dialogue well enough in securing solutions or due to his inability to put our positions to use, it would appear logical.
“Unfortunately, this call is not only illogical, but it also appears as a tool mischievously thrown up to disrupt the agenda of the coming visit with all it sets out to achieve in the spirit of nation-building which remains the mantra of the 9th Assembly and is considered a joint task”, Kalu added.
Also reacting to the threat, Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo, the lawmaker representing Degema/ Bonny Federal Constituency picked holes with moves by the leadership of the Green Chamber to sanction Rep Kingsley Chinda.
A statement released in Abuja, by Ibrahim Lawal, the media aide to Farah posited that Ado Doguwa, who cuts his legislative teeth as a member of the Third Republic and still a legislator in the current dispensation, ‘ought to be experienced enough’ to know that Kingsley Chinda did not commit any ‘legislative infraction with his patriotic call’.
He said claims by the Majority Leader that the President failed to honour the invitation of the House of Representatives because of Kingsley Chinda was not only ludicrous, but has only exposed the leadership of the House to hypocrisy.
” I can’t fathom this kind of authoritarian or autocratic democracy that the Majority Leader of the House, and his supposed colleagues he claimed to be speaking for wants to practice in the House. It is sheer hypocrisy. We are all witnesses to the state of the economy and the perilous security situation, especially in the North, where the Majority Leader comes from. As a supposed seasoned legislator, who was in the third republic, will he in all sincerity admit that this 9th Assembly is actually playing its role of checkmating other arms of government, particularly the executive?
“Rather than trying to demonize Kingsley Chinda, I expected the Majority Leader to encourage and thank him for speaking the minds of many Nigerians that cannot find comfort in a country they call their homes, especially in the North. For me, and I believe it to be the position of majority members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the House, Kingsley Chinda did not breach any legislative rules that could warrant any disciplinary action and as such any untoward move geared in that direction will be resisted. We are not in a banana Republic, we must imbibe the tenets of democracy and no one member in the House of Representatives will cow the other. We are all equals, as we represent different Constituencies, positions are just privileges.
” Furthermore, it is high time, we, as a House, discountenanced this subtle blackmail of resorting to ‘harmonious working relationships between the executive and legislature to put things in its right perspective. If the President and other members of the executive are getting it wrong, which is happening now, it behoves us representatives of the people to point him or them towards the right direction and if they fail to heed it, we use constitutional means to call whomsoever to order, “he added.
Another lawmaker, Tonye Smart Adoki who represents Port Harcourt Constituency Two in the Rivers State House of Assembly also chided the House of Representatives for the move, noting that Chinda didn’t move a motion based on hatred for Buhari but acted inline with the provisions of the constitution which empowered the parliament to impeach the president if he fails in his responsibility of protecting lives and properties.
Adoki who is the House Committee Chairman on Security called on PDP lawmakers in the National Assembly to rally round their colleague.
