I Have No Right To Stop Lawmakers From Leaving PDP – Tambuwal

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, has said that he has no right to stop PDP lawmakers from defecting to other political parties of their choice.

The speaker stated this through the Deputy Spokesperson of the House, Mr. Victor Ogene, at the 11th Annual Trust Dialogue, with the theme, “Incumbency and impunity in politics: Safeguarding our democracy beyond 2015."

Tambuwal argued that blaming him for reading the letter written by members who defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress was an “encouragement of impunity.”

“All of us know that no fewer than four governors had defected from their political parties and issues were not made out of it. If some members representing different federal constituencies decide to defect, I don’t think it is right for anybody to expect Mr. Speaker not to read the correspondence that comes to his table. He is first and foremost an embodiment and expression of the will of all members of the House.”


The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who declared the event open, said it was wrong to single out politicians for encouraging impunity.
According to him, events in the country are a reflection of the character of the nation’s polity.

He said, “If politicians are able to manipulate the electoral processes with their power of incumbency, it is because the entire social, economic and political configurations of the country are conducive for such political corruption.

“If not, an electoral umpire could resign rather than manipulate the electoral process. A voter could refuse to trade his or her votes for money. A security agent could refuse to aid or abate rigging for gratification or reason of ‘order from above.”

He urged the media to shun all forms of harmful propaganda and hate campaign that serve the political interests of deceitful politicians.

Ekweremadu assured that the National Assembly would not “stand and watch a few self-serving fellows truncate the nation’s democracy. We will continue to take the right steps to further strengthen our electoral system and curb incumbency interference and impunity.”

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