PDP lawmakers will contest for Senate Presidency, Speakership – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it would filed candidates into the leadership positions of the 9th National Assembly.

The party noted that the position of the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker, are constitutional right of every elected lawmaker in both chambers.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the main opposition party said its elected senators and members of the House of Representatives are constitutionally eligible and could seek election into any presiding offices of both chambers of the National
Assembly.

“It is therefore laughable and amounts to empty grandstanding and self-delusion for President Muhammadu Buhari and the factional National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to posture as if the presiding offices and committee chairmanship in the
National Assembly are exclusive rights of the APC,” the party stated.

PDP told President Buhari and the APC National Chairman that the National Assembly belongs to no political party but to all Nigerians, who exercise their control through their elected representatives.

It stated that Section 92 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear how principal officers of the National Assembly could be elected.

The party noted in June 2015, Hon. Terkimbi Ikyange and Hon. Peter Azi, both of APC, were elected Speakers of Benue and Plateau State Houses of Assembly respectively, though their party, the APC, was minority in both houses.

PDP also recalled that President Buhari and the APC, applauded the defection of then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal from the PDP to the APC, in October 2014, without relinquishing his position.

“In fact, the former Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, echoed the constitutional provision that ‘the constitution
requires only that the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be elected by members of that House from among themselves.'”

According to the statement, the party offices in the legislature are the Majority and Minority leaders and deputy leaders as well as Majority and Minority Whips and Deputy Whips.

PDP therefore called on President Buhari and the APC to respect the independence of the legislature and stop sowing of seeds of discord among the lawmakers, as such is directly against national interest.

PDP, against all odds, produced the Deputy President of the Senate, in the 8th National Assembly