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| Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal |
The House of Representatives on Wednesday reacted to the bribery allegation by the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress, directing its Committee on Ethics and Privileges to investigate the matter within two weeks.
A Peoples Democratic Party member from Rivers State, Mr. Kingsley Chinda, quoted the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as accusing some members of the House who defected from the APC to the PDP of having been bribed by the Presidency.
Five members of the APC had defected to the PDP on the floor of the House on Tuesday. On the same day, one PDP member defected to the APC.
Mohammed had alleged that the PDP members were induced with between $1m and $10m each to leave the APC.
“Lai Mohammed is the originator of this information; the matter has to do with our integrity before the electorate.
“Let us investigate it and unravel the truth. If a member is found to have been involved, there should be penalty for it,” Chinda told the House.
He noted that a “disturbing trend” was to accuse members of taking bribe if the defection was from APC to PDP, but was considered a normal thing when the PDP lost its members to the APC.
“The last time two members from Nasarawa State defected from the APC to the PDP, they were accused of taking N50m bribe each,” he said.
The Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, referred the matter to the Committee on Ethics and Privileges for investigation after majority of members approved of the motion.
In a separate reaction, Deputy House Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, dismissed the allegation.
Ogor claimed that President Goodluck Jonathan was difficult to deal with when it had to do with money.
He spoke further, “The talk of people being influenced is absolute nonsense. Nobody in his rightful mind will want to make such a comment. There was nothing of that nature.
“Let he or she that alleges prove. You know that he that alleges is saddled with the responsibility of proof. The question I ask is that the other people (37 lawmakers) that defected from the PDP, which is still a subject matter before a competent court of jurisdiction, are they saying they were also bribed? Or is it because the reverse is the case that they are now crying?
“They were the ones celebrating and busy trying to take over the House. I tell you one thing, knowing the person of President Goodluck Jonathan, he won’t give you a dime for anything, I can swear on that. He believes in transparency, due process and respect for the rule of law.”
However, Ogor defended the decision of any lawmaker to defect to a political party of his or her choice, saying that they were covered by the freedom of association guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution.
Asked whether Tambuwal was still a member of the PDP against the backdrop of speculation that he was leaving the party for the APC, the deputy leader replied that the speaker remained a PDP member.
He added, “Tambuwal is a full PDP member. He has not told us that he is going to APC neither is he crossing over to any political party.
“We know him as a member of our political party and he will remain a member of our political party. But let me state that the issue of moving from one party to the other is a personal issue.”
On the promise by the PDP to give lawmakers automatic ticket to return in 2015, he said such a ticket would not guarantee anybody a seat at the House.
“Automatic ticket does not guarantee you a seat in the National Assembly. You must be in touch with your constituents. You might get the automatic ticket and you may end up getting more rancour in your constituency.
“So, I think sometimes you must go for free and fair contest it makes the opposition that even fought you in the primaries work for you. Nobody has come out to promise anybody an automatic ticket”, Ogor said.
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