THE Minority Leader of House of Representatives, Ndudi Elumelu, has said the impeachment process commenced against President Muhammadu Buhari in the National Assembly is supported by some All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators moved to impeach Buhari on Wednesday over failure to tackle security challenges in the country but the motion was blocked by Senate President Ahmad Lawan.
Elumelu spoke on the impeachment moves after a meeting of the National Assembly PDP Caucus in Abuja on Thursday.
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At the meeting, the PDP Caucus in the House of Representatives officially joined its Senate counterpart in issuing a six weeks ultimatum to the President to address worsening security challenges in the country or risk impeachment.
Elumelu revealed that the impeachment process that was started by the minority members of the National Assembly has support across party lines.
“I want to join my colleagues that upon expiration, we will prefer ways of ensuring we will gather all the signatures.
“Let me make it clear, for those who are thinking it is an issue of only PDP or Minority Caucus, no, many of our colleagues, under the bipartisanship – all of them are affected. Many of them. So, they may not be speaking but we will be speaking for them.
“We are asking Mr President to address the insecurity in this country within six to eight weeks unless we will find the constitutional means to ensure that we will serve him impeachment notice,” he said.
This is coming after the Presidency on Wednesday described the impeachment motion by minority members of the National Assembly as “bravado” and “flippant ultimatums”.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina, who dismissed the impeachment, said the motion will not sail through.
“The truth is that, in this kind of scenario, minority will have their say while the majority will have their way. You know the configuration of the National Assembly. Those who spoke today are the minority of the minorities.
“They will have their say as is needful in a democracy but it will not go beyond that”.
Impeachment Process
To commence the process, the notice must be signed by one-third (1/3) of the members of the National Assembly.
Section 143(2) of the constitution provides that “whenever a notice of any allegation in writing signed by not less than one-third of the members of the National Assembly.
The National Assembly is made up of 109 senators and 360 House of Representatives members.The one-third of the 469-member National Assembly stands at 157.
Furthermore, the notice, which must contain the offence of the President, must be presented to the President of the Senate, who has the responsibility to serve the notice to the President and every member of the National Assembly within seven days.
The motion must also get the approval of two-third (2/3) members of each chamber before an investigation could be launched.
Sinafi Omanga works as a multimedia and investigative reporter at the International Centre for Investigative Reporting - ICIR. He has a keen interest in accountability, health and environmental issues.
Twitter handle:
@OmangaSinafi
Email:
somanga@icirnigeria.org
Good riddance to bad rubbish