Gbajabiamila Faces Impeachment For Allegedly Forging House Rules

Post created on 12:51 pm

Reports reaching our newsroom indicate that the Federal House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila may face impeachment at the plenary today (Tuesday), weeks to the end of his tenure after members of the lower chamber accused him of doctoring the house’s standing rules in favour of his ally Tajudeen Abbas as his successor.

According to the People’s Gazette, a source familiar with the matter revealed that about 100 lawmakers had registered their displeasure at the development and signed a notice of impeachment on the Speaker.

After the recently held general elections, in which the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) maintained a majority of seats in both chambers, the race for leadership positions in the Senate and House of Representatives has commenced, with Mr Gbajabiamila tapping Abbas Tajudeen (APC-Kaduna) as his top choice.

The inauguration of a new session of the National Assembly is next month and Mr Gbajabiamila’s colleagues are accusing him of manipulating the standard rules of the parliament for Mr Tajudeen, who many claimed is unpopular with other House members.

It was alleged that the lawmakers that Mr Gbajabiamila falsified the clause on the procedure for electing the speaker and his deputy in the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives (10th edition). They alleged that the doctored document provided that the house presiding officers would be elected through an open ballot against the existing rule of secret ballot.

The legislators believe that doctoring the document was the only way Gbajabiamila could impose his anointed candidate on members while describing the development as a bizarre deviation from the normal procedure.

A lawmaker also disclosed that the Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase, chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business would be queried for their roles in the doctored clause.