Lawmakers Decry Call for Interim Govt, Warn Aggrieved Parties to Desist from Heating Polity 

Udora Orizu in Abuja 

The House of Representatives on Tuesday condemned an alleged plot by the political class to put in place an interim government as a replacement for the nation’s democratic system.

The Department of State Services (DSS) had last week disclosed that some set of political class were planning to install an interim government in order to truncate the just concluded presidential election.

Reacting to the DSS claim, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described it as a covert plan by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and DSS to subvert the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

At plenary, lawmakers across party lines contributing and adopting a motion of urgent national importance sponsored by Hon. Idem Unyime (PDP, Akwa Ibom) described the plot as unconstitutional and satanic.

While condemning in strong terms the call for an interim government, they mandated the security agencies to be on alert to forestall any possible breakdown of law and order.

The lawmakers warned aggrieved parties to desist from heating up the polity and believe in the rule of law while awaiting the outcome of litigation before the court of law.

Unyime had while moving the motion, said the House is aware that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, part 1, section 132, allows for change of leadership through the ballots.

He said the House is also aware that the constitution allows for a four-year tenure of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after each election cycle.

The lawmaker noted that an interim government is undemocratic, unconstitutional and unknown to Nigeria’s laws as a court of competent jurisdiction had in time past so declare.

He expressed concern that if the plot is allowed to see the light of the day, it will result in anarchy, with a price “many generations after us will continue to pay for”.

He said: “Aware that the Judiciary is the only institution empowered by law to adjudicate over post election matters. Concerned that some politicians have made comments that indicate their grievance over the last elections. If this development is left unchecked, we might be sliding into irredeemable anarchy.”

Contributing, Hon. Sergius Ogun (Edo PDP), while frowning upon the call, opined that if government is alive to its responsibilities, this should not even be an issue that the lawmakers will be dissipating energy on in the parliament.

Ogun said: “I think the security agencies should do their work. If you are asking for a different government not known to law — it is treasonable felony. Year in, year out in this House, we budget billions of naira to the office of the NSA and other security arms. Is it not a shame that the security agents would come out and say they have the names of people that have muted this type of government in this country you will not arrest and prosecute them. 

“You’re wasting our precious time telling us to condemn it. If this government is alive to its responsibilities, this should not even be an issue that will we will be dissipating energy on in this House. People are dying everyday in this country killed by bandits, killed by hunger. Go to hospitals, people are not attended to; children cannot even go to school. Do we even have a government in this country. If the government cannot perform between now and May 28, they should resign and go. Because this is not even an issue we should be discussing here. How can you wake up and tell us some people are debating interim government. It is a waste of time for this parliament to even begin to discuss and debate a nonexistent issue.”

Also contributing, Hon. Ademorin Kuye (APC, Lagos) particularly frowned on the call by former President Olusegun Obasanjo for cancellation of the result collation.

He lamented that the alleged plot for interim government is so bad that politicians now sponsor protests at the National Assembly which he said leads to attack on parliamentarians.

He said: “Even before our security agencies uncovered the plot, former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the letter he wrote to President Buhari condemning this free and fair election of 2023 and asking him to find a way of cancelling without going to court. Who would have thought that somebody who had the benefit of free and fair election will allow for due process. Former President Donald Trump sponsored protesters as they are doing in Nigeria currently to go to the Congress and attack parliamentarians and that’s exactly what we are witnessing here. People sponsoring protesters to come to the National Assembly and attack members, and nothing has been done till today. The motion is timely and must be discussed, a commission should be set up to investigate this matter.”

On his part, Hon. Sada Soli (APC, Jigawa) said: “This motion is timely, apt. The main function of the state services is to protect and defend the country from domestic threats irrespective of the scope. Our Committee on National Security should have briefed us behind closed doors, we shouldn’t have been talking about this here because it’s a national security issue. But since it has been brought to the floor, it’s timely because it affects Nigerians that we represent in this chamber.”

Another lawmaker, Hon. Abubakar Ahmad (APC, Gombe) was of the view that though they can’t conclude whether the action is treasonable, there’s light at the end of the tunnel with the resolutions of the motion.

“The resolutions that the House is going to make will really put the issue to rest. When we condemn it and term it unconstitutional, that also we should arm the security agencies to get into action. We can’t conclude whether it’s treasonable or not, but with the resolution we are making today will enable anybody to approach the court. This not an exercise in futility rather we can see light at the end of the tunnel,” he added