THE House of Representatives has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to make public the name of a member of the National Assembly allegedly sponsoring separatists agitations in the Southern part of the country.
Buhari had in his Independence speech said high profile financiers was behing separatists agitations in the country.
The House at its resumed plenary while adopting matter of urgent impartance moved by Ben Igbakpa (PDP, Delta) insisted that the President must name the lawmaker to save the image of the parliamment.
Rising under 6 Rule 2 of the House Standing Order, Igbakpa observed that Section 17(a) of the Powers and Privileges Act, 2017, confers the constitutional responsibilities of lawmaking as enshrined in Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He expressed displeasure over the gravity of the allegation levelled against the Legislative arm of government by the head of the Executive Arm and called on National Assembly leadership to meet with the President to name the serving member is sponsoring terrorism as claimed in paragraph 33 of his speech.
Moving the motion, Igbakpa said: “As reported by the media across the world, President Buhari in his Independence Day speech, told the world that one of us is sponsoring terrorism.
“Mr Speaker, that means that 469 members of this National Assembly are crime suspects. On that fateful day, I went to Akure, to be part of the burial ceremony of our fellow colleague, Hon. Adedayo Omolafe. On Saturday, I had to honour an invitation to Ghana for a wedding, Mr Speaker, it will amaze you what I faced in the hands of Ghanaian officials.
“They detained me for about four hours, that they are trying to confirm something, I stayed at the airport for four hours, missed the wedding I went for and at the end of the day one of them walked up to me saying sorry sir there’s an announcement in Nigeria that a member of Parliament is sponsoring terrorism and we are put on red alert to ensure that no member of Parliament comes here to hide or cause trouble.
“I had to come back home dejected. They have been calling me all over the world, my friends have been telling me, who among you is that person is sponsoring terrorism. The right thing for a father to do is to name and shame any child that’s bringing about division. But Mr President didn’t shame that person or name them instead he named 469 members.
“All of us here are prime suspects. I appeal that the leadership of the House to liaise with their counterparts in the Senate to try and see the President so that he can tell us who’s sponsoring terrorism amongst us”.
In his response, Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila who presided over the plenary assured that the motion of “noted and we will get back to you on that.”
