THOSE CALLING FOR TAMBUWAL’S REMOVAL DON’T KNOW CONSTITUTION – APC

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says those calling for the removal of Aminu Tambuwal as the Speaker of the House of Representatives do not know the 1999 Constitution well.The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Thursday in Abuja said that there was no provision in the constitution which stated that the speaker of the house must come from the majority.
Mohammed said: ”For those who say Tambuwal should resign, I want to refer them to the extant laws and constitutional provision of the house.
”It states that if a person leaves a party on the platform by which he came into the house to another party, he should resign, except where it can be proved that there is a crisis or a faction within his party.
”Even a blind man today knows about the crisis that led to the ousting of the former Chairman, Bamanga Tukur; seven governors walked out of their convention.
“It led to the creation of the new PDP, led to 37 honourable members and 15 senators decamping to APC, among other reasons.
”There’s no provision in the constitution that says the speaker must come from the majority but from one of the members,” he said.
The publicity secretary said that Tambuwal became the speaker by ”his ability to attract followership. He was not the preferred candidate.
”The only way to remove him is when two-thirds of members remove him; so we have no law or moral right on why he should resign as speaker.”
He said the party was elated about the carpet crossing and was glad to lead the legislative arm of government.
He said the fortunes of the party would improve in terms of followership and development.
The speaker had announced his decision to join the APC on the floor of the house on Oct. 28 and thereafter adjourned sitting of the house to Dec. 3.
Tambuwal was presented to the party at the APC mini convention on Wednesda and given a broom as symbol of the party.
Source: Vanguard