Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila
The All Progressives Congress caucus in the House of Representatives on Monday said that it had “enough grounds” to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan but that was not in a hurry to do so.
The APC caucus said the time was not yet ripe to initiate impeachment against the President.
Minority Leader of the House, who is also the APC leader in the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, told The PUNCH that neither the caucus nor the entire National Assembly needed a directive from the APC national leadership to impeach the President.
He said lawmakers would monitor the President for now, hoping that he would amend his ways by addressing the allegations raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his controversial letter.
Gbajabiamila said, “As for impeachment, there are enough grounds for impeachment of the President.
“The constitution says you need only one ground, but we have more than one ground already. So, the party (APC) does not have to give us a directive to impeach the President.
“Nobody wants to impeach the President, but we will continue to study the situation to see whether he will sit up.”
He added that the opposition was watching the Peoples Democratic Party closely to see whether it would impeach any of the five governors who defected to the APC recently.
“Particularly interesting is the case of Rivers State. We want to see how they will use five legislators to impeach a governor in that state,” he stated.
Gbajabiamila said the “opposition will respond in the most appropriate manner” should any of the defected governors lose their seat.
When contacted, the PDP caucus in the House warned that it would resist any move to discuss the impeachment of Jonathan at the House.
Deputy Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, described such as “wishful thinking.”
He argued that the National Assembly would not contemplate impeaching the President because “one external group” said it should do so.
“Their call is even based on inconsequential issues that negate the spirit of the 1999 Constitution,” he said.
Ogor noted that Jonathan was elected by Nigerians, who could also opt to “impeach” him by refusing to return him to the Presidency in 2015.
Investigations showed that there was no formal communication between the national leadership of the APC and its members in the National Assembly on the issue.
Findings revealed that most APC lawmakers got to know of the directive to impeach Jonathan from the publication of the statement by their interim National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Lai Mohammed, in some newspapers.
“Such a discussion has not taken place. We have not been contacted, or should I say, I am not aware. The party has not contacted us formally about the impeachment issue,” one APC member in the House confided in The PUNCH on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, on Monday said the Senate would not heed the call by the APC to commence impeachment proceedings against the President.
Enang warned the APC to “stop employing cheap blackmail to take over power through the back door.”
He said, “The National Assembly cannot heed the call of the APC or treat the content of former President Obasanjo’s letter.
“The letter from former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter was not addressed to the National Assembly.
“The issue of impeachment has not arisen. The issue of impeachment of the president has not at all arisen.”
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