Aminu Tambuwal remains Speaker, says Reps

The House of Representatives said on Thursday that Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal remained its Speaker in spite of the recent development in the polity.

The Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Rep. Victor Ogene, said this while addressing parliamentary correspondents in Abuja.

Ogene (APGA-Anambra) said that unless the All Progressives Congress (APC) garnered up to 181 members, there would be no basis to discuss any change in the leadership of the House.

“There is no cause for alarm. The leadership of the House is intact and until a particular political party has up to 181 members before you start talking of change in leadership,” he said.

He said that in spite of the anticipated mass defection of some members to the All Progressive Congress (APC), Tambuwal remained the speaker.

According to him, section 68 (1) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) is clear on the defection of lawmakers as there is nothing like group or mass defection.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports that before the defection of five PDP governors to the APC, the PDP had 208 representatives in the House, while APC had 137 members.

On the delay in the presentation of 2014 national budget by President Goodluck Jonathan, Ogene said that the President had written to the House to reconcile its positions on oil benchmark with the Senate before he would be able to lay the appropriation bill before a joint sitting of the two chambers.

“We are not blackmailed. We are only taking it in our strides. Whenever we get the document (budget proposal), we will work on it,” Ogene said. ( NAN)

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Reporting by Babatunde Akinsola in Lagos, Nigeria.