Disturbed by the recent statement credited to the president-elect and the ruling party’s leadership (APC) related to the leadership of the yet-to-be inaugurated national assembly, a political activists group from Plateau State, Wase Patriots, has described the speculated zoning arrangement as an imagination of the authors.
In a Press Statement made available to journalists, spokesman of the group, Sanusi Muhammad, stated that neither the ruling party (APC) nor the president-elect has the constitutional right to impose or decide those to be leaders of the national assembly other than the elected members.
“The president-elect and the APC leadership have no constitutional mandate to load their stooges on the national assembly. It is only those elected members of the yet-to-be inaugurated national assembly that have the constitutional mandate to elect or select their leaders
“APC and the president-elect acted out of their jurisdiction. They lack the constitutional power to dictate to the elected members who and who should be their leaders without the consent of at least those aspiring to lead the 10th national assembly as if those members are stooges and inconsequential in the democracy
“APC from the beginning had a hidden interest against some of the aspirants that necessitated its delay in zoning the national assembly positions. It consciously created the problem that it is now battling to solve from the backdoor to achieve its hidden agenda. It failed to act fast when it was time until so many interested aspirants from the zones declared interest in the slated leadership positions unchecked
“As Patriots that are committed to the survival of the democracy, we are appealing to those elected members of the national assembly to ignore the APC played drama programme and go ahead to do the needful and save the democracy”.
The group called on the present deputy speaker Ahmed Idris Wase to remain steadfast, resolute, focused and determined in his speakership aspiration as it is only his colleagues in the House of Representatives that have the right to decide those to be their leaders but not any other person or group out of the national assembly.
