Rumpus in the House Where we got it wrong – Reps

Bankole...Is there weakness in his leadership? and Melaye...Rebel with a cause?

BY CHIOMA GABRIEL, Deputy Editor
A small group of members of the House of Representatives, according to sources that spoke with Saturday Vanguard  constituted an irritation in the sessions over a period of  time . They started by complaining about the constitution of  the committees in the House and vowed to cause problems. They always found something which they used to cause distraction and for sometime, the House has been thinking what to do about them.
The grouse of  this group which called itself the progressives and led by Honourable Dino Melaye from Kogi state , said our source, was that  some of them were removed from committees and ever since have  continued to raise all manner of  allegations to rubbish the image of  the House. Some members of the House felt these aggrieved members should have followed due process in laying their complaints but they didn’t.

They complained of  ineptitude in leadership and accused the leadership of spending N9Billion in two years even as they revisited the issue of  Committee vehicles that came up sometime in the past. In the heat of  their allegations, they gave the Speaker a deadline of  which  to resign. That, said our source was like a conclusion that the Speaker is guilty of  the allegations they leveled against him.

“ They constituted a nuisance. They were to be suspended and they wanted to oppose it and that resulted into  fist cuffs. Before the display which everybody saw, one of them had accosted the Speaker at the corridors of the national assembly and assaulted him. His name is Independence Ogunewe.

The Speaker told him that he (Speaker) went to his house and  he was not there but he met his wife at home. And Ogunewe began to abuse the Speaker, using all manner of words. The issues became personalised and continued to degenerate until it became the public disgrace that became televised for all to see”.

Speaking on the  recent brawl in the House, Hon. Dave Salako, a three- time member  of the Lower House and former chairman of the House Committee on Economic Crimes, Drugs and Narcotics told Saturday Vanguard that what Nigerians witnessed was a shame even though it has happened in other places in the world’s parliament.

“ It is not only here that something like this has happened.  It happens everywhere. It is not peculiar to Nigeria. It has happened  in Italy, China and even  Britain. They have experienced  disagreements and fights. There is nowhere in the world without disagreements. It depends on the type of disagreement. We are  lucky it wasn’t the type of  tables and chairs  used in Zik’s era that we used have now. Such could have been  used as weapons. We have a more modernized furniture. Otherwise, it could have been worse.

“Indeed, what happened was a shame. We’re are sorry. We promised it won’t happen again. We over did it.
“What happened could have been avoided if the suspended members had walked out quietly as expected. We have rules in the House. We are not  sweeping anything under the carpet.

I have acknowledged that  we overdid it. We are not protecting anybody. The suspended members have earlier petitioned the  ICPC and the  EFCC and they are  investigating and will come out with their reports at the end. Everything will be sorted out.

“ But you must know that what happened did not just happened. We learnt that the suspended members brought weapons and even tear gas into the chambers. That is  an aberration and against the law. But we hope that this show of shame will serve as a deterrent to others coming after us. I want to also say that the suspension is not indefinite. It could be lifted anytime.”

When Saturday Vanguard reminded that the punishment was one-sided and did not include those loyal to Bankole who also participated in the fight, Salako acknowledged that although it takes two to tango, it was not so in this case.

“ In this case, somebody wants to seize the mace. He was prevented from doing so and was  pushed out. They were pushed out so that there will be peace. And there was instant peace immediately they were ushered out. But I must admit that those who handled it  just overdid it.

One person is  hospitalised. I think he fell and had a fracture. It wasn’t a fight really as being portrayed. The two people fighting are best of friends.”

Salako also disagreed with the allegation that  there is ineptitude in leadership.

“You can’t jump into conclusion yet. Leadership of the House was accused.  That allegation has been taken to the highest body. If there was ineptitude, EFCC will not spare anybody. The reports will come out and we shall all see”.
For Honourable Habeeb Fashiro, the brawl was an unfortunate incident which ordinarily, he would not want to comment on.

“ Really, I can’t explain it. It was  just an unfortunate incident. There is nothing to say. It happens everywhere in parliament. But this shouldn’t have happened. You have  to appreciate the fact that we have rules which govern our plenary.

The rules are simple. If you are asked to leave, you should leave honourably. If you choose not to leave the chamber when you are asked to, you will be ejected forcefully. It’s unfortunate but that is the rule.

“ You may say that the suspended legislators have some allegations and ought to be listened to. But     whatever allegations they may have, there is channel of laying the complaints. What you saw on TV does not negate the fact that there are issues in the House.

The House has been peaceful before what you saw happened.. We should not exaggerate things. We should not blackmail leadership arbitrarily. There are two sides of  the coin and you have to obtain information from both sides of the coin.

It is clear in the House rules that if you resist leaving, you will be taken out by force. But these members  felt they were bigger than the chambers and  the presiding officers and that was wrong. You must know that before this time, one of these suspended members met the Speaker at the corridor and started cursing and abusing him right there at the corridors of the National Assembly.

That was too far. If it’s his child, he wouldn’t talk to him like that. These issues come up all the time and it’s the same people causing problem . The challenge has been that  if this continues, what would we do? You have to bridge the gap and ensure peace. A lot has happened that culminated into this. You cannot be bigger than an institution.”

Honourable Farouk Lawan described the experience as his lowest moment in the eleven years he has been in the House.

“My personal opinion is that it was one of my lowest moments in the House. A parliament should use intellect to resolve issues, not muscles. Things were not supposed to happen that way if the suspended members had left after the unanimous decision by members of the House to suspend them”.

Moreover,  Farouk Lawan did not see the punishment meted out as a one-sided affair.

“Before the brawl, they were already  suspended and the rule says if you are suspended, you should leave quietly but they didn’t. They wanted to resist and that led to the confusion. It shouldn’t have degenerated to that level if they had left quietly.”

Asked if it was possible that the House was shielding the Speaker against allegations of fraud leveled against him and some key members of the House, Lawan said that if there was a fraud, he would not subscribe to a cover up or be seen as protecting the Speaker by any standard.

“ The House has already  begun investigation of the allegations against its leadership. We are not covering up for anybody. The manner they went about the allegations was clearly  to embarrass the House. They didn’t do it properly. They petitioned EFCC and an investigation is on. They deliberately went out to rubbish the House.

The House suspended them. It was not Bankole that suspended them . The suspension was unanimous. All members of the House voted in favour of their suspension.”