BORNO: Reps divided over motion to invite Buhari

Members of the House of Representatives were sharply divided today over the move to invite the President for briefing on the spate of killings rocking the country, particularly the recent slaughtering of rice farmers in Borno State.

The motion of urgent national importance sponsored by lawmakers from Borno State had one of its initial prayers as the invitation of the President.

But while presenting the motion, Lead sponsor, Ahmed Santomi excluded the prayer, but rather asked for the declaration of a state of emergency on security situation in the country.

However, coming under matters of privilege, one of the sponsors, Ahmed Haha expressed displeasure over the exclusion of prayer.

Haha noted that it was a collective decision of the sponsors of the motion to ask for the invitation of the President to come and brief the House

Efforts by the Speaker to make him withdraw the prayer which came in form of amendment failed as he insisted that all members from Borno State who are sponsors of the motion should agree on that first.

The Speaker said because of the nature of security issues, it will not be ideal to invite the President because security matters cannot be discussed in public, stressing, however, that the issue of declaring a state of emergency will allow for the use of extra measures in tackling the issue.

Tempers began to flare when the House Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa said security issues were too delicate to bring to the floor of the House, while Shehu Koko said the leadership of the House should interface with the President instead on the issue.

Both Doguwa and Shehu Koko were both shouted down by the members with shout of no, no, no.

However, Gbajabiamila expressed disappointment over the behaviour of his colleagues, saying “I am a little disappointed by these shouting down. So we are going to dissolve into executive session to resolve this issue”.

Executive sessions involve clearing the gallery of the media and other non-elected officials to allow for only members deliberate in private.