Members of the House of Representatives loyal to embattled Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, may initiate fresh moves to impeach the Deputy Speaker, the Nation reports.
The paper reports that the defection Speaker Tambuwal from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, has created a crack within the caucus of the PDP in the House.
The Nation, which has unveiled bent to All Progressives Congress, stated that the move to remove Ihedioha as deputy Speaker of the House was borne out of his alleged disloyalty to Tambuwal, whom those planning the move claimed has been protecting Ihedioha.
Tambuwal loyalists are poised to counter any moves aimed at removing the Speaker, the report stated.
The pro-Tambuwal lawmakers that cut across the PDP and the APC are threatening that Ihedioha would be the first casualty of the ongoing drama in the House, if an attempt to reconvene the plenary ever succeeded.
Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha.
A source informed that it baffled the lawmakers that Ihedioha would move to reconvene the House to pave way for the removal of Tambuwal at the instance of the Presidency.
He added that an impeachment motion against the Deputy Speaker is being drafted with many members signifying their interests to endorse the motion.
“We are alarmed at moves by the Deputy Speaker to reconvene the House somewhere this week in order to remove the Speaker.
“Therefore, we have resolved that Ihedioha will be the first casualty if he dares reconvene the House because he has been surviving because of Tambuwal’s protection.
“Most PDP members from the north and all APC members are in support of removing him.
“He survived several moves to oust him because Tambuwal and some powerful northern members have been protecting him but now that he is being pushed to bite the very finger that is feeding him, his days as deputy speaker are numbered.
Speaker Aminu Tambuwal
“Unlike Tambuwal, Ihedioha does not have any personal touch with members. But the Speaker has touch and contacts with all the 360 constituencies in the country.
“Former Deputy Speaker Bayero Nafada was not like Ihedioha, his was always filled with members.
“Even members from Ihedioha’s zone in the Southeast are with us in this project which makes it easy for us to get the 240 votes to impeach him,” the source, who pleaded anonymity, said.
It would be recalled that Tambuwal had gone to court to challenge an attempt to remove him as the Speaker of the House of Reps following his defection to the APC from PDP.
