29th June, 2010
The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has roundly condemned the open fight that ensued between the members of the House of Representatives last week. The party describes the fight as an open show of shame that rubbishes the image of Nigeria and greatly indicts the so-called members of the national assembly and the PDP.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC says that what the world witnessed on the floor of the House of Representatives represents the general decay and malaise that has hit Nigerian politics especially in the eleven years of the PDP blitzkrieg. It insists that Nigerians must rise up against this demeaning act that says so much about the record low the PDP has sunk Nigeria in the past eleven years.
“One would have thought that in a situation like this, when genuine allegations have been raised against the house leadership, we believe that the best option would have been for the house leadership to submit itself to a comprehensive probe to either prove its innocence or own up and get punished for its malfeasance. We would have thought that in a sane clime, the leadership of the House of Representatives would have subjected itself to the scrutiny of an independent probe panel both within and outside the house and made its points to such panels.
“We are quite embarrassed that the house leadership and the various factions of the house resorted to fisticuffs and gutter tactics to sweep the raging allegations of corruption under the carpet. We are particularly peeved that in the full glare of the whole world, men who have busied themselves ripping off the nation in the name of legislation engaged in fights and shameful display of crudity to gain advantage over the other. We condemn these in quite a strong language and insist that the show of shame must be investigated and perpetrators punished.
“The show of shame in the House of Representatives shows poignantly that so long as we continue to reward impostors and reprobates without sound education in our political landscape, so will the country be reduced to a butt of ribaldry by a group of people that have nothing to safeguard. We all shall be the collective victims of this and other like parodies that have been made an integral part of our national politics.
“Lagos AC is particularly peeved that the house leadership is desirous of ignoring the weighty allegation on how a huge chunk of public money was misappropriated by it. We see the suspension of eleven members who raised the allegation of corruption against the Speaker and the house allegation as crude and quite antithetical to the cause of justice. We do not believe the speaker and the house leadership can be competent judges over their case and as such, we want them to rescind the decision to suspend those members and submit themselves to an open probe on how they spent N9billion capital vote for the house of representatives.â€