Former President Olusegun Obasanjo came under fire from the National Assembly yesterday for saying that there are armed robbers and rogues in state and Federal legislative houses.
The House of Representatives asked its committee on ethics to investigate the former president’s assertion, with Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal hinting that Obasanjo will be invited to defend himself before the lawmakers.
For its part, the Senate challenged him to mention names of the rogues and armed robbers among legislators.
On Tuesday, Obasanjo questioned the kind of laws the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly make given that there are “rogues (and) armed robbers” in them.
“Integrity is necessary for systems and institutions to be strong. Today, rogues, armed robbers are in the state Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly. What sort of laws will they make?” he said at a conference of the Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies in Lagos.
One of the leaders of the House of Representatives yesterday hit back at Obasanjo, saying the former president lacked the moral rectitude to “cast aspersions” on the lawmakers.
“The former President called us rogues and armed robbers. But I am not an armed robber neither am I a rogue,” Deputy Minority Leader Suleiman Kawu Sumaila (ANPP, Kano) said, while moving a motion under rule six of the House standing orders to draw attention to Obasanjo’s statement as reported in the newspapers.
“His greatest grouse against us is that we refused him third term in office and since then we have become his enemies. But Obasanjo does not have credibility in Nigeria. Remember he was dragged to court by his own son accusing him of sleeping with his wife,” Sumaila added.
However, Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal blocked moves by lawmakers to debate Sumaila’s motion, saying, “Obasanjo can decide to come and say that he did not say so. Therefore what is raised by the deputy minority leader we cannot go into the foray and make conclusions.”
Tambuwal then referred the matter to the Committee on Ethics and Privileges for investigation.
Efforts to reach the ethics committee to find out how they intend to go about the investigation were unsuccessful.
Committee chairman Gambo Dan Musa (CPC, Katsina) and his deputy Tobi Okechukwu could not be reached by telephone last night.
Senate: Name the rogues, robbers
The Senate also responded to Obasanjo yesterday, asking him to specifically name the rogues and robbers in the National Assembly.
Spokesman for the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South), told journalists at the National Assembly in Abuja that it would be good for Obasanjo to mention names so that the National Assembly would “sanitise” the system.
“The National Assembly has a great respect for the person of the former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and we can never engage him in any talk-back,” Abaribe said.
“We just feel that he would help the National Assembly and Nigeria, in the spirit of transparency and openness, by naming those he knows in the National Assembly as rogues and robbers.
“If he does that, it would help us in sanitising the polity. We appreciate his role in the country, but we would further appreciate him and others who are concerned about Nigeria if they can let us have whatever information they have to check ourselves,” he added.
Daily Trust
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