—David Mark to receive notice Dec 16
— That list is fake, say APC Reps
By Ezrel Tabiowo and Joshua Egbodo, Abuja
A senator has disclosed that at least 70 of his collegues have by yesterday appended their signatures to have President Goodluck Jonathan impeached, adding that the number was increasing.
Senator Aliyu Jajere, representing Yobe South in the National Assembly, also said an impeachment notice would be presented to the President of the Senate, David Mark, on December 16.
He said the insistence by some senators numbering almost 70 who had signed the impeachment move was predicated on facts which found the president guilty of impeachable offences.
Jajere made the disclosure while speaking to journalists after yesterday’s plenary.
He said: “I have signed the impeachment notice because there are impeachable offences against President Goodluck Jonathan.
“In 2011, this Senate approved N240 billion as subsidy fund but the same government spent N1.7 trillion, which is a clear breach of the constitution, clear breach of the appropriation act.
“The business of government is to curtail excesses, but this government has shown that it is incurably deficient in handling the situation in this country. That government cannot say it wants to continue.
“The president should have even resigned without waiting for him to be impeached.”
According to him, it behoves the legislature to act as a check and balance because it is the most important symbol of democracy.
“If you don’t have the legislature, you don’t have democracy because every other arm of government exists even when there is no democracy. It is only the legislature that makes a democracy, a government.”
Speaking on the alleged move to impeach Jonathan, he said: “As at last week, 63 of us have signed up for the impeachment. My signature was the fourth, but I can confirm to you that we have 63 signatures. But after the session today, two people had called me and told me that they want to sign. One of them is an APC senator who was away doing campaign because he is contesting the governorship election of his state. The other person is a PDP senator.”
Jajere added that the impeachment move is not just coming now, but a process that started early in the year and was interrupted midway.
“There are issues that have triggered the National Assembly to do what it should do. No matter what the time, it is a three-legged issue; the National Assembly will now have to initiate the process and then, submit that process to the judiciary. The judiciary will form a committee through the CJN; the National Assembly will carry out the verification of the committee and conclude the remaining process.
“The National Assembly will soon conclude our own side and submit the notice to the judiciary.
“As of today, the required signatures to initiate the impeachment notice had been obtained. The Senate has adjourned to the 16th, so by that date the impeachment notice will be presented on the floor of the Senate.
“Before the end of today I can assure you that the list will swell up to 70. It is on the impeachment day that we need two-third of the members to carry out the exercise but we need only one-third, which we already have, to initiate the process. It is just a matter of one-day sitting. We will just push it before the two chambers.”
But Senator Ayogu Eze (PDP, Enugu North) described Jajere’s claim as “nothing but a blatant lie.”
He said: “Put me on record, Senator Jajere is a blatant liar for saying that 65 or 70 Senators have signed his alleged impeachment list against President Jonathan. The said list is non-existent in the Senate. And why didn’t you tell him to show you the list on which he said he is number four and, in particular, ask him who is number 65 there?
“Yes, there are some political opponents of the president in the Senate or even disgruntled ones, but the fact is that even if they want to make such move, they cannot even get up to 10.
“And where are they even going to table such rubbish? We are waiting for them, anyway.”
Reacting to the alleged offences listed by Jajere as reasons for the planned impeachment, Eze said: “Even the reason reportedly cited by the senator for the so-called impeachment move stands logic on its head because how can you be bringing non-existing offences of 2011 as impeachment offences in 2014?
“Where were they in 2011 when the alleged offences were committed by the president? And don’t they even know that three other appropriation bills had been passed by the Senate after the 2011 one?”
He urged politicians to be very cautious in their conduct and utterances ahead of the 2015 elections so as not to overheat the polity beyond manageable proportions.
Members of the APC in the House of Representatives have also disowned a purported impeachment list against Jonathan in circulation, stating that they would publish the authentic one in due course.
Some members of the House had reportedly signed an impeachment notice in reaction to the November 20 police attack on the National Assembly, but the list in circulation has been subject of controversy as many members named on it, especially those of the PDP extraction, have denied ever signing the notice.
Reacting to the controversial list, a member of the House, Hon. Tajudeen Yusuf, who expressed surprise that his name was found on the list, stated that it was “ridiculous and evil for APC in its unfortunate propaganda to insert names of PDP members in their ungodly and inept antics to cause crisis in the polity.”
Also reacting yesterday, Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, described the list in circulation as “fake”.
He said in a press statement that Nigerians should disregard the list as it did not emanate from the APC caucus of the House.
He said: “The general public is hereby advised to disregard a fake impeachment list published by some online publicists for obvious sinister intentions.
“None of our APC members in the House of Representatives is party to the fake impeachment list.
“The authentic impeachment list would be published in due course and we urge our constituents across the country to be so guided.”
