Nigeria’s House of Representative leader, Hon Alhassan Ado Doguwa has lampooned at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) peddling lies against over its legislative matters.
In a statement he issued on Monday which was obtained by CAPITAL POST in Abuja, he said: “My attention has been drawn to a statement purportedly made by Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the decision of the honourable house to suspend legislative activities for observance of our annual recess.
“It is at first repulsive for an opposition party, PDP that have seemingly lost the actual meaning and essence of opposition to have brought in undue politics into a matter of national interest, especially at the time of prevailing health and economic challenges.
“Although, one should not have glorified them with a response by wasting precious time required for fixing the economic woes which they recklessly plunged the country into, but it has become imperative, for the sake of educating their targeted sympathizers, to set the record unambiguously straight.
“It is ridiculous to discover that the PDP, a supposedly major opposition party in the country, does not know the workings of the National Assembly, let alone knowing where the constitution or house procedures have been breached.
“It is worthy of note also, that it has never been the practice or tradition of the House to continue with indoor Committee engagements while on annual recess as it’s obtainable in the developed democracies like US, who are right now enjoying their summer recess, especially now that we are being faced with a global health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The PDP are always desperate in their typical nature because if they’ve have done their homework well, they’ll know that committees do not sit during our annual summer recess. It’s not only the legislative, the Judiciary is also on recess and apart from few courts that open for administrative purposes, all the courts are locked up and paused to continue cases including corruption cases only upon their resumption.
“It will be of interest to the PDP, the investigations the House is currently undertaking including the Chinese loans cover the 16 years the PDP was in power and when most of the loans were obtained. So, maybe they should be thanking the House leadership for covering up their misdeeds.
Hence, making reference to the recent $500 billion China loan by the PDP Spokesman which has already been approved by the National Assembly through a transparent and formal request was either a deliberate misrepresentation of facts or an utter ignorance of the history.
“Therefore, it’s pertinent to know that the government has already captured the recent loan in the 2020 Appropriation law and it should not be a subject of any controversy or query in the committee’s investigation process at least for now. And as a matter of norm and procedure, the House can only wait until disbursements and utilisation commence before embarking on oversight implementation.
