HOUSE SPEAKER: CPC ACCUSES PDP OF IMPOSITION PLOT

Members-elect of the House of Representatives on the platform of the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) rose from a crucial meeting in Abuja declaring that they were averse to what they described as 'compulsive imposition' of leadership of the House.

The caucus of the CPC members-elect further said that it had uncovered a plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to impose candidates on the members.

A resolution of the meeting, signed by Mallam Garba Datti Mohammed, representing Sabon Gari Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, noted that there were also plans by the PDP government to use state institutions of coercion, such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), State Security Services (SSS) and the police to prevent popular candidates from entering the National Assembly, to ensure that they are not nominated to lead the House.

The members-elect, therefore, advised operatives of the EFCC, SSS and Nigerian Police to resist the attempt to be used in the unfolding undemocratic plot, which they noted tend to suppress and alienate the will of the people and their good conscience.

According to the CPC members-elect: 'We make bold to state unequivocally that we are not interested in whoever becomes the Speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives; rather, we are interested in the competence and sagacity of whoever that emerges as Speaker and deputy speaker that would pilot the affairs of the House creditably well irrespective of where such leaders come from.

'We have it on good authority that there are sinister plans by anti-democratic forces to put away competent aspirants to the positions by arbitrarily using state apparatus to make then unavailable on the day of the inauguration of the 7th Assembly scheduled for Monday, so that they cannot be present or nominated and/or accept nominations as required by the House rules. We must warn that if our democracy must grow, the tenets of democracy must be respected.'