Ahead Of National Assembly Inauguration:  PDP Alleges Plot To Arrest Opposition Lawmakers

By Ayodele Oni

The People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) has alleged that there are plots to arrest notable leaders of the party ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly on Tuesday.

PDP claimed that this is part of the plot to enable the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) actualize the zoning arrangement in the leadership of the national assembly.

PDP spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, told Journalists on Saturday, in Abuja that  lawmakers-elect, who are opposed to the preferred candidates of the APC in the race for presiding offices of the Assembly are target of the planned arrest.

Ologunagba, who accused some elements within the APC of being behind the plot, said the move was aimed at intimidating and harassing lawmakers-elect to choose the party’s annointed candidates.

“The PDP notes that the independence of the legislature is a prerequisite for a virile democracy and therefore insists that the members-elect in both houses must be allowed to elect their leadership.”

He noted the provisions of the subsisting Standing Rules of both chambers of the National Assembly, which emphasize the need for the legislators to elect their leadership among themselves on the floor.

“This is the critical ingredient of constitutional democracy, independence of the legislature and principle of Separation of Powers.

“The national assembly is the symbol of the sovereignty of the people in a participatory Democracy.

“The people exercise such sovereignty through the choices made by their elected representatives on the floor of the National Assembly.

“Fundamental to this sovereignty is the choice of the presiding officers of the National Assembly which must not be appropriated by any group of individuals.

“Such will amount to a dethronement of the sovereignty of the people.

“The PDP charges the lawmaker-elect to remain steadfast in their resolve and continue to keep in mind that Nigerians expect them to assert their independence in the election of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”