After over four weeks of confusion and stalemate in the House of Representatives over how to handle the report of the Hon. David Idoko panel on the controversial renovation contract, the Speaker, Hon. Patricia Etteh, who has been recalcitrant all along, has finally agreed to step aside.
Etteh is expected to step aside when the House reconvenes next Tuesday to pave the way for the consideration of the damning report.
But the issue of who takes charge when the House begins debate on the report, however, remains contentious.
Against expectations that the House will pick a Speaker Pro-tempore to step into Etteh�s shoes, the Chairman, Rules and Business Committee of the House and a pro-Etteh lawmaker, Hon. Ita Enang, told THISDAY last night that there would be no Speaker pro-tempore.
He said what might happen was that the Committee of the Whole House would elect a Chairman pro-tempore who would sit for the purpose of the consideration of the report alone while Etteh would take charge of other businesses of the House.
But the Integrity Group spearheading the move to oust Etteh over the contract has opposed the idea of a chairman pro-tempore.
The arrow-head of the group, Hon. Lawan Farouk, said there was nothing like chairman pro-tempore in the House rules.
Hon. Graham Oguakwa from Enugu State said the group would not accept anything like that.
Meanwhile, THISDAY learnt that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the warring camps to pick two members each to work out the modality for the consideration of the report at Tuesday�s sitting.
Nominated on Etteh�s side are Enang and Hon. Friday Itulah while the Integrity group has directed Oguakwa and Hon. Emma Jime to represent it.
Etteh�s new posture came as the opposition failed to sit yesterday in protest against the hurried adjournment on Tuesday despite its vow to do so.
The pro and anti-Etteh lawmakers engaged in grim fight over the call on Etteh to step aside following the damning report of the Idoko panel on the renovation contract. In the report, the nine man panel said due process was not followed in the award of the contract.
Enang said it was the responsibility of the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Babangida Nguroje, to preside over the report as provided by the Standing Orders of the House adding, however, that since Nguroje was also part of the leadership that was investigated by the panel, he would also not sit over the report.
Enang said Etteh had never resisted stepping aside for the consideration of the report but that such moves had been thwarted by the opposition, which never allowed due process to take its course.
The pro-Etteh camp had initially wanted to press for the deputy speaker to preside over debate on the Idoko report.
But the Integrity Group had maintained that Nguroje could not preside because he is a co-accused in the contract scam.
Hon. Halims Agoda, the spokesman of the group, said yesterday that the rules of the House provided that a speaker pro tempore should emerge in this instance.
Agoda said: �When we are considering a report, it is the Deputy Speaker by our rule that will be the chairman of the consideration of any report. Our rules allow that. But in this case, the speaker and the deputy speaker are both accused in this whole crisis, which should pave way for the election of a speaker pro-tempore. So, when we come to that, the rules and the Constitution will guide us.�
But despite vowing to sit yesterday, the expected sitting of the opposition did not hold even though many members were seen standing and chatting among themselves at the lobby of the National Assembly.
The Deputy Minority Leader, who is also the leader of the Action Congress (AC) in the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, said the reason for the failure of the opposition to sit as planned was due mainly to the fact that they had decided to wait till Tuesday as, according to him, two wrongs do not make a right.
�The Speaker adjourned illegally but we will wait. We will come on Tuesday and sit. She won�t adjourn again on Tuesday and so, she will face the inevitable,� he said.
On the meeting of the PDP with its members in the House, the AC Leader said it was in order, but what the party did not have the right to do was to impose its will on the lawmakers.
�You have situations where there are issues that cut across party lines. So whatever you say as a party is irrelevant at that point. That�s exactly what is happening here. The issue has cut across party lines, a good majority of members speaking with one voice,� he said.
Meanwhile, the 10 man reconciliation team made up of five members from the Etteh group and the Integrity continued their meeting yesterday.
The meeting was deadlocked on Tuesday.
But yesterday, Etteh, House Leader, Hon. Tunde Akogun, and the Leader of the Integrity Group, Hon. Lawan Farouk, waited in vain to hold the rescheduled meeting with the outgoing National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Ahmadu Ali.
It was gathered that Ali who was absent at the meeting summoned by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to discuss the crisis, wanted the various groups in the crisis to brief him.
The Speaker of the House, Etteh was the first to arrive the PDP National Secretariat, followed by Hon. Chuma Nzeribe, Hon. Lawan Farouk and the House Leader. But after several hours of waiting, they left.
Oct252007