By Paul Williams
As battle for the speakership of the 10th House of Representatives continues to gather momentum, a group operating under the aegis of Coalition of True Democrats yesterday rose from an emergency meeting opposing the ongoing moves to impose Dr Tajudeen Abass as Speaker.
National Coordinator of the group, Dr Mustapha Yusuf in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja argued that the move is antithetical to the tenets of democracy and the rule of law.
The group warned House of Representatives members-elect to guard against any action that would compromise the independence of the legislature.
The group called on members-elect to freely choose from among aspirants jostling for the seat of the Speaker of the House of Representatives based on their pedigree, level of acceptability, competence and experience over the years.
The group thereby urged the President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leadership of the APC to drop the idea of imposing Tajudeen Abass on members of the House in the interest of peace and tranquility in the country.
The group noted: “The President Elect must not allow anti democratic forces not to cajole him into interfering in a function exclusively provided for the legislators by the Nigerian Constitution.
“Those behind it are doing so for their own personal and selfish biddings which is inimical
to our nations democracy.
“For those who crafted the word democracy and indeed separation of powers. The idea is to have an independent arm of government called the legislature for the purpose of providing checks and balances in such a manner to avoid the concentration of powers in one body as this would lead to usurp of powers and consequently degenerate to dictatorship, tyranny and operation.
“Section 50 (1a) and (1b) is clear and unambiguous as it states that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.
“This simply implies that any other person or persons or group of persons nominating the principal officers of both houses other than the representatives themselves is Null, Void and Unconstitutional, therefore amounts to an aberration which tantamount to usurping the powers of the legislators thereby exposing the fragile democracy of Nigeria to jeopardy.
“We must do things the right way. We must not allow imposition of principal officers of the national Assembly on our legislators”, the statement read.
