From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the House of Representatives has called on Nigerians to compel their representatives in the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari over rising insecurity.
The caucus, in a statement by its leader, Kingsley Chinda, yesterday, accused President Buhari of allegedly violating Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which provides that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government…”
The lawmakers also called on the Federal Executive Council members to invoke the provisions of Section 144 (1) of the 199 Constitution (as amended) ‘by declaring that the president is incapable of discharging the functions’ of his office.
The caucus said it is disheartening that while Nigerians are killed daily by terrorists and bandits, President Buhari has allegedly failed to lead Nigerians from the front as he promised.
Reacting, All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus dismissed PDP impeachment call as baseless.
House Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, in a WhatsApp message to Daily Sun, yesterday, said it is unpatriotic for the PDP caucus to be calling for the impeachment of President Buhari at this point.
Ado-Doguwa said the president has tackled insecurity significantly in the past five years. He said the government is doing a lot to bring insurgency in the country to an end.
“It is baseless and unpatriotic of the PDP caucus to call for the impeachment of Mr. President at this critical period of our democratic journey.
“After all, the unfortunate security situation we now found ourselves was the result of PDP 16 years misrule. President Buhari, in his last five years in office, has checked insecurity in the country to a significant extent. And a lot is being done by this administration to bring insurgency to a final end.
“Our scheduled engagements with Mr. President would definitely provide unprecedented solutions to these precarious situation,” the House leader said.
Regardless, the opposition lawmakers, while reacting to the recent killing of farmers in Zambarmari area of Borno State, said the reactions of the presidency and the military to such killings “highlight crassness and lame duck attitude that has for the past five years come to define the Buhari presidency.
“The greater worries for the country however, is the do-nothing posturing and the effeminate reactions of the presidency and the military that follow the dastardly attacks.
“The dastardly attacks on poor farmers which have continued unabated across the vast swathes of northern Nigeria, came to a sad climax at the weekend in Zabarmari, near Maiduguri, North East Nigeria.
“The attacks continue to take a consistent pattern – a pattern that results in mass deaths and emboldens the insurgents to embark on more spectacular attacks that provide them national and global attention. While the emboldening of terrorists remain sources of worry, the greater worries for us is the do-nothing posturing and the effeminate reactions of the presidency and the military that follow the dastardly attacks.
“Northern Nigeria has long become the vortex of massacres. From Buni Yadi, Gamboru, Baga, Gwoza, Shiroro, Konduga, Kawuri, Southern Kaduna to Benue and certainly everywhere else in Nigeria, lives are being snatched by insurgents, bandits and kidnappers who have no respect for the sanctity of life.
“While President Buhari idles in the typical fashion of Emperor Nero as our country burns. Questions must be asked about his capacity to lead at a time that our country desires robust and responsible leadership that can pull it from the brink and rescue it from insurgents, terrorists, bandits and kidnappers,” the PDP caucus said.