Another attempt by members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop the Federal Government from using the military during the conduct of the 2015 general elections failed yesterday.
The presiding Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, again ruled against the motion seeking to restrict military from elections.
The motion to that effect which was sponsored by the Minority Leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos), was aimed at calling the lawmakers’ attention to the need to stop what he called ‘’an unconstitutional deployment of military personnel for election purposes.”
Gbajabiamila, in his motion, prayed the House to set up an ad-hoc committee that would investigate the role played by the military personnel and other persons who featured in the controversial audio tape on Ekiti State’s election and report to the House within four days.
He insisted that the government should not deploy military personnel during the upcoming elections in compliance with the decision of a Federal High Court in Sokoto until such decision is set aside, adding that the use of military personnel at election centres may intimidate the electorate.
According to him, the presence of military personnel in polling units and wards is capable of generating unwarranted apprehension that will scare away innocent citizens.
The lawmaker said the action was capable of preventing voters from peacefully and wilfully exercising their franchise.
The motion was challenged in a point of order moved by Hon. Karimi Sunday, (PDP, Kogi), who citied Order 9 Rule (7) (5) which says the House cannot comment on any matter that is pending in court and which in the opinion of the Speaker will prejudice the judicial outcome of same.
Hon. Sokonte Davies (APC, Rivers) and Gbajabiamila once again countered, citing same Order 9 Rule 58. They said Hon. Sunday breached the rules preventing a member raising a point of order from debating or reading from a text speech as he was doing.
Their points of order were sustained by the Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who also appealed to the lawmakers on the need to seek legal counsel on the matter.
“In view of the sensitivity of this matter and the unfolding events in the country, I want us to take this matter very seriously.
‘’Therefore, I would urge that the Committees on Rules and Business, Justice & Judiciary to meet on this matter and come back to advise the House on it by next week,” he ruled.
However, at yesterday’s sitting, presiding Deputy Speaker Ihedioha called on Hon. Sam Tsokwa, Chairman of House Committee on Rules and Business, to brief the House on the advice of the committee whether the lawmakers should deliberate on the matter or not.
Tsokwa, however, advised that the matter should be dropped. According to him, the Armed Forces Act gives the president the powers to deploy the military for the protection of lives and properties.
He said the president’s power to “determine the operational use of the Armed Forces in Nigeria for the purpose of maintaining and securing public safety and public order” is a constitutional mandate donated by the constitution and the Armed Forces Act.
At this point, the Minority Leader disagreed with Tsokwa, which led to a rowdy session.
Gbajabiamila said, “The report purportedly given by Tsokwa cannot stand the law or even the facts, because even by his own admission, he did not seek for any evidence because the part of order that was raised on the motion was that the matter was in court and, as such, we cannot discuss it and then in the opinion of the speaker of the House, he needed some legal advice.”
He argued that Tsokwa abandoned his terms of reference and decided to take the debate and ruled on the entire merits of the motion, stressing that, “It is unacceptable to us; we will not accept it is a travesty of justice and for us as progressives, this is what we cannot allow to happen.”
He added that the “deputy speaker is partisan, biased and we cannot accept this.”
However, the motion remained dropped as the presiding deputy speaker had ruled on it.
-NEWSWATCH TIMES-
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