Since the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, defected to the main opposition party, the All Progressives Party, APC, in the country, President Goodluck Jonathan must have vowed to match him action with action.
Lawmakers in the House close to the President told Sunday Vanguard under the condition of anonymity that he vowed to tackle Tambuwal with all available legal means.
What happened, last Thursday, when the police attacked the hallowed chambre and thus prevented the House from reconvening was a plot designed to frustrate the moves by APC Reps from presenting an impeachment notice against Jonathan.
The PDP Reps also had their joker to counter the moves by invoking the relevant sections of the House rule to unseat the Speaker.
Lawmakers at the National Assembly Thursday.
One of the sources said that ‘’ the meeting we PDP Reps had on Wednesday night was to plan how to frustrate any attempt by the APC Reps to present the impeachment notice”.
The lawmaker narrated further what transpired at the meeting: “Our plan was also to raise an order of privilege on the floor of the House that would give us the leverage to ask Tambuwal to step aside and institute an impeachment proceedings against him.
“We would have asked his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, to preside, but our plan failed as the Inspector General of Police, Sulaiman Abba, thought otherwise and invaded the National Assembly under the guise of protecting national interest.
“Where did the police, for God’s sake, get the intelligence report that hoodlums were going to attack NASS? Did you see any hoodlum except the hooded men in black uniform?.
“He has now pushed us to the level of carrying out damage control measure because his action has jeopardised our plan to shove aside Tambuwal.
“It is painful as we have to hatch new plans to checkmate the Speaker.
“ The President should act fast by asking the IGP to resign.
“We had convinced him to have faith in us as we were capable of impeaching the Speaker once he steps aside for his deputy to preside because he couldn’t be a judge over his own case.
“But from what happened today (last Thursday), we may have to go back to the drawing board to design fresh plots.
“Some of us are not particularly happy because the office of the number four citizen of this country was denigrated by the IG and his men”.
“Tambuwal’s name one day will be written in gold by this singular act of impunity perpetrated by the IGP”.
The ‘GEJ must go’ project
Immediately Tambuwal defected, the APC Reps who appear better organised than their PDP counterparts, had a ready made answer to the situation.
They started collecting signatures that would enable them plot for the President’s impeachment and counter any plan to oust the Speaker.
Consequently, they held meetings in different locations in Abuja.
An APC lawmaker who chairs one of the most sensitive committees in the House, told Sunday Vanguard that immediately Tambuwal defected, “we already had our game plan as to how to counter any PDP plot to remove the Speaker”.
“He went on: As we speak now, we are already gathering signatures that will enable us start throwing articles of impeachment against the President.
Speaker Aminu Tambuwal (m) With others during an emergency plenary In Abuja on Thursday.
“We will continue to fight the cause of the Speaker till the end of this Assembly.
“One thing you can’t take from us in the APC is that we believe in ourselves than the PDP Reps do in themselves.
“We are always one step ahead of our PDP counterparts because our dedication is unshakable.
“And if the Deputy Speaker had presided today, while Tambuwal was around, we would have immediately moved to impeach Jonathan.
“It would have been one of our easiest tasks as APC Reps would have mobilised all the members to perfect the impeachment”.
“The man was lucky that such thing never happened because we were ready to exchange fire for fire on the floor of the House”.
Sunday Vanguard reliably gathered that the presidency got wind of the APC impeachment plot and decided to use the police to avert it.
Little wonder that as at 5.30pm on Wednesday, hooded men and plain clothes security agents had taken over the National Assembly complex preparing to unleash terror the following day.
vanguard
