No Plan To Strip Me Of My Powers—Deputy Speaker Lasun
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yussuff Sulaimon, Lasun has described as baseless, reports of discord between him and the Speaker of the House, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.
He said the reports are part of attempts to sow the seed of discord in the House of Representatives and among its leadership.
Lasun was reacting to media reports that Dogara was planning to reduce the Deputy Speaker’s powers , citing some amendments to the House Rules.
A statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Wole Oladimeji, said the Deputy Speaker and Dogara share an uncommon bond.
“The House is constitutionally empowered to amend its rules as it deems fit and the process is aimed at enhancing the activities of the House,” the statement said.
“The eighth assembly set up an ad hoc committee to review its rule, inaugurated by the speaker with the deputy speaker in attendance and once the review is concluded, the report is expected to be presented to the House for robust debate before it becomes the new House Rule for the eighth assembly,” it added.
“It should be stated clearly that this has not been done, so the rule being referred to as stripping the deputy speaker of its function by the speaker is a figment of their imagination of the writer,” the statement further read.
The full text reads:
SPEAKER YAKUBU DOGARA NOT STRIPPING DEPUTY SPEAKER OF FUNCTIONS
The office of the Deputy Speaker has read with disgust another attempt to sow seed of discord in the House of Representatives by the phantom claim that the Speaker Rt. Hon. YakubuDogara is stripping the Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. SulaimonLasunYussuff of the statutory duties of the Deputy Speaker.
This report is not only aconjecture emanating from uninformed minds of the usual “our reporters or insider sources”, it is a non-existent issue
While the office is disinclined to reacting to ill-intentioned reports promoted by external forces, we owe it to the unsuspecting public to clarify issues and let the sponsorsstew in their concoction of lies.
The house is constitutionally empowered to amend the rules as it deems fit and the process is aimed at enhancing the activities of the house.
The 8th House of Representatives mandated an adhoc Committee to review its rules, the committee was inaugurated by the Speaker with the Deputy Speaker in attendance and once the review is concluded, the report is expected to be presented to the entire house for robustdebate before it becomes the new house rules for the 8th Assembly.
It should be stated clearly that this has not been done, so the rule being referred to as intended to strip the Deputy Speaker of one of his functions by the Speaker is a figment of the imagination of the writer.
The Speaker and Deputy Speaker have an uncommon bond that isnot threatened, not to talk of being broken by unsubstantiated fallacies such as this, just like the others before it.
The entire members of the 8th House of Representatives are united behind this leadership that they elected and no amount of sponsored reports can threaten the bond of unity that is now reigning supreme in the house.
The public should therefore discount this report and await the renewed zeal of members to serveNigeria upon resumption under the leadership of Speaker YakubuDogara and ably assisted by the Deputy Speaker.