Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) youths in the Southwest, under the aegis of PDP Youths Congress (PDPYC) have alleged that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has been instructed by a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to begin the suspension of some notable PDP Reps members next week.

The youths warned of the consequences of President Muhammadu Buhari’s silence in the face of flagrant lawlessness and authoritarianism being perpetrated by his party leaders in collaboration with the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Rising from its monthly meeting held in Ado Ekiti on Sunday, the Convener, Comrade Oluwole Durojaiye, in a release alleged that a meeting was held in Abuja on Friday night where Gbajabiamila was instructed by a certain leader of the APC to flush out about ten PDP members who are seen as arrowheads of the opposition against the illegal appointment of Minority Principal Officers by the Speaker.

The PDP youths, who disclosed that another meeting will be held in Ibadan, Oyo State in two weeks time, added that Nigerians should recall that the PDP sent a letter dated June 21, 2019 to the Speaker on June 26, 2019 in which names of minority principal officers were listed. Gbajabiamila however ignored the letter and announced other members as minority principal officers, an action which caused uproar in the House on Wednesday.

The PDP had responded by suspending Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, Hon. Wole Oke, Hon. Lynda Ikpeazu, Hon. Anayo Edwin, Hon. Gideon Gwadi, Hon. Toby Okechukwu and Hon. Adekoya Abdul-Majid, on the ground that preliminary examination by the National Working Committee (NWC) showed that the roles played by them in the House of Reps minority principal officers' issue bordered on indiscipline, insubordination and disobedience of party directives contrary to Section 58 (1)(b)(c)(f)(h) of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017).

Ostensibly in response to the PDP's suspension of the minority principal officers imposed by Gbajabiamila, the meeting of last night was called and the Speaker was expressly instructed to suspend Hon. Kingsley Chinda, Hon. Muraina Ajibola, Hon. Yakubu Barde, Hon. Chukwuka Onyema, Hon. T. J. Yussuf and Hon Mark Gbillah.

Calling on President Buhari to stop playing ostrich to lawlessness being perpetrated in his name, the PDP youths pointed out that Nigerians will one day ask questions as to what took place under him as President.

They said that the entire world knows the position of majority and minority parties in the Parliament. The world knows that once the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament are elected, it is the majority and minority parties that appoint other principal officers.

“Therefore, if in a Federal Government headed by President Buhari, a man who claims to have integrity, a Speaker of the House of Representatives, who allowed APC to choose its majority principal officers but disallowed PDP from doing same, is now being directed to suspend notable members of opposition in the House, Nigerians are watching.

“President Buhari should remember that those party members of his that are perpetrating crude illegalities all in the desperate bid of a certain leader of the party to be President in 2023 will not be mentioned in future. Only the President will be mentioned when in future, Nigerians will make reference to whatever that is done now.

“Today, when making reference to those who ruled Nigeria in the past, no one will mention the names of those who worked with them and on this House of Reps issue, only the name of Buhari will be mentioned in future as both the President and leader of APC under whose rules of the House were violated and members threatened by a Speaker who is fast becoming a dictator.

“Therefore, as an elderly person, who should be making restitutions for whatever he had done wrong in the past, President Buhari should safe his name and do the right thing during this second term, so that in future, Nigerians will remember him for good and not as a President, under whose impunity and disregard for laid down rules reigned supreme,” the group said.

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