Members of the House of Representatives were divided at Tuesday plenary on whether or not to invite President Muhammadu Buhari to appear before them and offer explanation on the true security situation of the country.
An earlier circulated motion had prayed for the invitation of the president.
But the motion eventually moved by Hon. Satomi Ahmed on behalf other 10 Borno State lawmakers on the floor prayed the president to amongst other things, declare a State of emergency on security matters.
The House was considering a motion moved by members from Borno State on the recent massacre of 43 rice farmers in the state by Boko Haram insurgents.
But the motion as presented didn’t sit down well with another Borno lawmaker, Hon. Ahamdu Jaha who relied on Order 6, Rule 1 of the House to say that the original motion to which all the lawmakers agreed on was to call on the President to address them on the security situation especially in the north east region.
He, therefore, amended the prayers of the motion.
“My amendment is that Mr. President should be invited to come and explain the security situation in the country especially in the north east”, he said.
His amendment got the support of the House. But the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila said it was not necessary, stressing that the State of emergency prayer sufficed.
This was however rejected by the House. Similarly, the majority leader of the House, Ado Doguwa added his voice, saying that security issues can’t be discussed openly, pleading for the understanding of his colleagues not to summon the president.
His contribution was however greeted with a thunderous shout of No. Seeing the rising tension and the determination of the lawmakers, the Speaker suddenly called for executive session to resolve the matter.
“Hon. Colleagues, I am a little bit disappointed with a lot of these no, no.
“This is not the spirit with which we started this 9th assembly.
“We will go into executive session to resolve this matter”, Gbajabiamila said
