BEVERLY HILLS, CA, December 23, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives has said that the defection of 37 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) was in the best interest of democracy.
The House also hinted that it had no problem with the likely change in the leadership of the lower House.
THEWILL recalls hat the 37 legislators defected last week to the All Progressives Congress (APC) citing division, factions and other alleged infraction in the PDP.
But in his reaction to the development, Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Victor Ogene said it (defection) was a welcome development.
“For us the development is in the interest of the Nigerian democracy. There has to be dissent for democracy to thrive. If we all agree on the same issues then that will not be democracy. Democracy all the time is the rule of the majority, and for us since we are in a legislature it is a welcome development,” he said.
Commenting on the alleged move to change the House leadership structure, he explained that the mode of election of principal officers of the parliament is subject to the provision of the House Rules and relevant laws as explicitly defined in Sections 50 and 60 of the 1999 Nigerian constitution.
“If the Speaker checks the records from the Clerk of the House who is the custodian of the register. When that is confirmed then the nomenclature changes,” Ogene explained.
On the calls on the National Assembly to initiate the impeachment of President Goodluck Jonathan following allegations of infraction by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ogene said, “the. National Assembly as an institution does not respond to calls. It deals with issues that come before it. You either come by way of a motion, petition or by way of introducing a Bill. So far, none of these has happened as far as that matter is concerned.”
On the controversy trailing the 2014 budget, Ogene explained that the House decided to adopt $77.5 oil benchmark price after it considered the report of the conference committee of both Senate and the lower chamber on the lower crude oil selling price.
He said the benchmark was arrived at by looking at the prevailing price of crude oil in recent times, maintaing that “the $77.5 is the lowest mark crude oil has sold in the last three years.”
According to him, it was based on this information that, the senate’s conference committee chairman, Sen Ahmed Makarfi, and the House’s, Adeyinka Ajayi arrived at the current benchmark, “hence the committee decided on a middle ground between Senate’s $76.5 and House’s $79 per barrel.”
He noted that the budget consideration would be the first business of the legislators when the House resumes from Christmas break in January 2014.
By Saint Mugaga, Abuja
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