The People’s Democratic Party has said its elected senators and members of the House of Representatives are constitutionally eligible to lead the National Assembly.
The PDP noted that positions of the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker were not exclusively meant for any political party, but constitutional rights of every elected lawmaker in both chambers.
It, therefore, described as laughable, the move by the leadership of the APC and Buhari to impose leaders on both chambers.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, stated the position of the party in a statement in Abuja.
He said, “It is laughable and amounts to empty grandstanding and self-delusion for President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, to pose as if the presiding offices and committee chairmanship in the National Assembly are exclusive rights of the APC.
“President Buhari and Oshiomhole should wake up to the fact that the National Assembly belongs to no political party but to all Nigerians, who exercise their control through their elected representatives.
“For emphasis, Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear in providing that ‘There shall be:- (a) a president and a deputy president of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.’
“Section 92 (1) makes the same provision for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of State House of Assembly.”
The spokesman for the PDP insisted that the former ruling party had a role to play in the election of who would lead the two chambers.
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