Signals emerged last night that the embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh is going ahead with plans to attend next Monday�s joint session with the Senate despite threats to boycott the event by her opponents in the lower legislative chamber of the National Assembly.
The joint session of the National Assembly is to be addressed by the visiting Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh.
The boycott, the anti-Etteh members claimed on Thursday, is aimed at ensuring that “the wrong signals are not sent to the outside world that we are at ease with the wrongs committed by the Speaker” by participating in the session.
But a source close to the Etteh camp told THISDAY last night that the planned boycott would fail because it lacked support. The source said Monday�s joint session would prove that Etteh is in control of the House.
“Membership of the Integrity Group is on the decline. The opposition is falling apart. It is a game of numbers and they know it. As at today (Friday night) About 260 members have pledged their written support to the speaker. They have less than 50 members on their side. Monday�s session will be an anti-climax for the opposition.
“The plot against the speaker has failed. It was about getting juicy committee chairmanship positions and they have failed. They did not get what they wanted and tried to pull her down. The speaker will be on the floor on Monday with the Senate President and you would see the kind of support she would get,” the source said.
It was also confirmed last night that the Idoko report would be discussed on the floor of the House next week Tuesday. It was gathered that the opposition may find it difficult to get the Speaker to step down for the debate on the report because of their dwindling numbers.
�The House will determine if she has been indicted. There has to be an indictment before she can be told to step aside. As things stand, she has not been indicted, ” another source in the Etteh camp said.
Members of the anti-Etteh camp in the House of Representatives had on Thursday hatched plans to boycott the Monday joint session with the Senate so as not to accord recognition to Etteh.
A member of the opposition camp who spoke on the issue said: “To attend the session is to accord recognition to the Speaker who has already been indicted by the Hon. David Idoko-led Investigation Committee.
“What is expected of her is to step down to enable the House appoint a Speaker pro-tempore for the purpose of guiding debate on the report of the committee, which had already been laid on the table.
This may be a striking replay of the scenario in 2000 when members of the House of Representatives threatened not to attend the joint session unless the then Senate President, Chief Evan Enwerem, would not be allowed to preside following a scandal over his personal records.
That session was to have been addressed by the former visiting Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chrietien. The House members� opposition eventually stalled the joint session.
Meanwhile, despite the inability of the National Assembly�s management to reproduce copies of the verbatim report of the Idoko panel, lawmakers are insisting that the debate must go on when the House resumes plenary on Tuesday October 16.
The lawmakers are not happy over the fact that since the house went on recess to observe the Sallah break and also study the verbatim report, the Acting Clerk of the House Mr Niyi Ajiboye has refused to reproduce the 2000 page verbatim copies of the report for the members.
The Clerk we gathered has told the members that it would cost the National Assembly N7.5 million and would take some time to be produced for the 356 members.
Despite the set back, the lawmakers are insisting that the business of legislation must not suffer since the case has dragged on for too long without any headway being made.
The lawmaker wants the Rules and Business Committee Chairman Honourable James Solomon Ita Enang to list the debate for Tuesday so that it would be thrashed out on the floor of the house.
It was gathered that it might not be possible for Enang to do the listing since the members would be required to go through the 2000-page document and determine a date for the debate.
However most members who want the House to move forward want the plenary to discuss the report even without the verbatim annexure as the main report which has been made available to the members is sufficient for them to discuss the issue effectively.
Members of the Intergrity Group opposed to the leadership of Etteh however want to damn the management and go ahead to introduce the report via a motion on the floor of the House on Tuesday when they resume plenary.
A member of the Group Honourable Patrick Obahiagbon who represents Oredo federal constituency indicated any attempt by the leadership to stalemate the debate will result in a holocaust as the House must move forward one way or the other.
Obahiagbon said on Thursday September 27 when he raised the motion that they go and study the report, the Speaker had mandated the clerk, Mr Niyi
Ajiboye to make the copies of the verbatim report available to all the members and was surprised that Ajiboye is yet refused to carry out the order by the Speaker.
“You can remember that we went on recess for Sallah and also to study the report. I had expected the National Assembly management to make it available before now. But yet they have delayed it up till this moment. Are they now saying that the National Assembly has no funds to reproduce the verbatim report for all the members? We must move forward.”
The vocal lawmaker explained that the House has not really done much since they were inaugurated on June 4 and the electorate is expecting so much from their representatives.
It was also confirmed that the Clerk had also told the lawmakers that they were all entitled to the verbatim report but that logistical problems slowed down its production.
The management, it was gathered, may attempt to rush its production on Monday and send it to all the lawmakers on Tuesday just before their 10 a.m. resumption time.
Oct132007