By Akinwale Kasali
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has berated the Femi Gbajabiamila- led House of Representatives for allegedly frustrating corruption investigation In the House.
The Speaker, the main opposition Party, the PDP, alleges, is covering up, and shying away from addressing and investigating Corruption Allegations.
The allegation was made in a statement issued on Saturday by the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
The Party asserts that the decision of the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership of the House of Representatives to shut down the sitting of various committees carrying out investigation on the executive is a deliberate design to cover the stench of corruption oozing out of the APC administration.
The PDP urged Gbajabiamila to stop circumventing the statutory duties of the House and placing of wedges on the way of the fight against corruption by the legislature.
The PDP described the shutdown order by the APC leadership of the House of Representatives as a clear example of corruption fighting back from within the government circle, which must be condemned by all Nigerians.
The statement reads: “It is clear that the shutdown directive is targeted at frustrating revelations from ongoing investigations on the $500 billion foreign loan from China, particularly as it relates to the mortgaging of our nation’s sovereignty to China.
”This is in addition to the investigations into the humongous corruption in government agencies including the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) the N300 billion unremitted revenue to the federation account as well as allegations of corruption in government earnings and the expenditure in Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA’s) under the APC.
”It is therefore unfortunate that under the Gbajabiamila-led leadership, the basic responsibility of the House of Representatives, which is its oversight on the executive, has just been maimed through a forced holiday on the members of the respective committees and their Chairmen.
”It is equally distressing that the APC leadership of the House of Representatives is breaching parliamentary rules, practices and procedures to shield APC leaders and their cronies who have been fleecing our nation.
”Our party therefore holds that any parliament that deliberately frustrates its statutory responsibility to call the activities of the executive to question has lost the essence of its own existence. The leadership that led it into such constitutional suicide must be held culpable.
”The PDP, however, commends the members of its caucus and other minorities in the National Assembly for standing against corruption and striving to ensure that the APC does not sell Nigerians into slavery with its reckless foreign borrowings.
”Our party urges the lawmakers not to be deterred but continue in their assignments, as they are only answerable to the Nigerian people.
PDP, however, charged the leadership of the House of Representatives to immediately reverse itself as Nigerians expect nothing but seamless investigations without unnecessary interferences and incursions.
”If the Honoruable Speaker is inclined towards allowing the covering of corruption, against the purpose for which he was elected to lead the House, then, he should take a bow and step aside”, Ologbodiyan stressed.
