By Luka Biniyat  & Tordue Salem

It is unfortunate — Femi Gbaja, House Of Reps, Minority Whip
The motion raised on suspension could have been for a month, two weeks, but it was indefinite and that is unfortunate. What it means is that it will run to the end of the suspension.

Unfortunately the rule applies to everybody across board (including those who did not fight but were listed on the motion). But everything is unfortunate. It’s really unfortunate. It didn’t really have to come to this at all, but we will see what happens. It should not have happened at all.

And the Speaker announced earlier that students were in the gallery and I know and we knew that it was going to be a rowdy session and we couldn’t stop it. We are supposed to be role models, this shouldn’t have happened.

No individual is above the law, including the Speaker himself, but what we did (by suspending Melaye & co) was unfortunate, it could have been better. I was part of the decision, but I still say it was very unfortunate. It was extreme and I feel we can do better, I feel something should be done about that.

I have no apology – Dino Melaye (PDP/Kogi)
I have no apology and no regret over what happened. If the same circumstances appear again, I would be involved the same way allover.

I was attacked without provocation. Hon. Chile Igbawua  (PDP/Benue) was allowed to raise a motion  to suspend us when he did not raise any point of order. The Speaker in his desperation to nail us had arranged for that kind of thing. It was like a woman giving birth before becoming pregnant.

I took the whistle into the chamber, because we were confronting an un-usual situation, which needed an unusual solution.

There is no where in the laws of the House that says that we should not talk to the Press when there are allegations of corruption against anyone. Is the money involved not public money? Why should we want to hide and discuss it? In fact, the House Rule encourages us to expose corruption and ensure accountability. So what we did was not against our laws?

We shall be heading for the courts very soon.

Their behavior was very unruly – Igo Aguma, (PDP/Rivers)
Enough is enough!  That is what the House was trying to drive home yesterday (Tuesday). You cannot sacrifice the integrity of the House of Representatives because you want committee Chairmanship. Committee Chairmanship is a privilege and a call to duty not a right.

The behavior of these guys was clearly unruly and we could not stand it anymore.

Even the woman (Reps Doris Uboh) that you said was attacked was the first to attack that member. She did not behave well, you can view the video clips of the crisis; it is on TV.
The allegations they are making have already been sent to the committee on procurement.

Even if they want to remove the Speaker, must they bring down the whole House?

The House of Representatives is bigger than one man or one group. The House of Representatives is bigger than Bankole. No one must destabilize the House; we have a duty to protect it for the Nigerian people

Some of our members were wrongly manhandled – Clever Ikisipko (PDP/Bayelsa)
The issue should have been trashed among the Reps before sending it out.
I do not however, subscribe to unruly behavior both on the side of Dino and those not on his side. I know that Order 10, Rule 6 of the standing House Rule which empowers the Speaker to suspend a member allows the use of force by the sergeant-at-arms to remove a reluctant suspended member from the chamber, some of the members that were attacked did not say they would not leave the chamber after their suspension. I know of at least one.

Some of the suspended members were not even in the chamber. Some are not even in the country. We should have been able to identify those who were willing to leave, and not swoop on all of them. I pray that this chamber should never witness this kind of thing again. I am not happy at what our image is like today.

They rubbished Reps in public against our rules – C.I.D Maduabum (PDP/Anambra)
The resort to violence has never been a justifiable way to make a case. You cannot take laws into your hands; there are laid down procedures on how to pursue anything in the jurisdiction of the legislature. Trying to snatch the mace, while we have a presiding officer is not one of them. And going to the public to ridicule an institution without waiting for the courts or the appropriate legal channels to decide his case, is unacceptable.

The Legislative Houses Privileges Act and Order 5 Rule 2 of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives are clear on how to conduct yourself as a lawmaker, but they did not follow those rules and it is our duty as a House to call them to order

We cannot allow selfish members in the House – Rep Farouk Lawan (PDP/Kano)
Some of us have contributed a lot to the development of the legislature and we know that what the Progressives have done runs against the grain and tradition of legislative business in the world. We cannot sit and allow some selfish members of the House bring us to ridicule. We must fight with all the Rules and Laws available.

When we fought the former Speaker Patricia Etteh, we did not go against any law or Rule in the House, we explored all the available channels, but at the end we succeeded, so this set of members too should do same, instead of resorting to violence on the floor of the House.

They were out to ridicule the House – Jerimom Manwe (PDP/Taraba)
No individual is above the law. Nobody can single-handedly drag the whole House to ridicule. So what we did now is just to say we cannot condone lawlessness. We have so many things to do and we just have one year left, so distractions cannot help us.

The submission of their report to the EFCC is against Parliamentary Rules and that is why they were suspended today. It is against our Legislative Powers and Privileges Act and that is the reason why they were suspended. There are mechanisms for resolving these issues in our rule book.