Follow Us on Google
Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, said the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) violated the principle of democracy during elections for presiding officers of the National Assembly.
Oshiomhole also slammed the PDP for investigating the voting pattern of its members during the election and described them as bunch of confusionists.
He said these during a meeting between the APC National Working Committee (NWC) and party stakeholders from Kano State, to finalise the choice of the chief whip in the Eighth National Assembly, Ado Doguwa, as leader of the NinthHouse of Representatives.
The ruling party boss also promised to forward Doguwa’s name to the House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, for former announcement, commending the maturity of the National Assembly members during the election of the principal officers.
Addressing the delegation led by the Kano State Deputy Governor, Nasiru Gawuna, the former Edo State governor said: “I was particularly excited when, in violation of a court order, the Clerk to the National Assembly insisted that the election be conducted through secret ballot and our members in the two chambers proved their complete loyalty to the party by voting in the manner that they did.
“They voted such that the PDP that was calling for secret ballot, because they didn’t want people to know how they voted, are now the ones conducting enquiries to find out who voted for who. That is complete violation of the essence of secret ballot.
“The idea of secret is that nobody should know who voted for who. Now, PDP is going down in history as a party that seeks to investigate how people voted in a secret ballot and that is gross violation of the most basic principle of democracy.
“That is why we are better and different and I am very proud of all of you,” he said.
The APC national chairman added: “We have tried our possible best to learn from the errors of the past and try to proactively intervene and interface with the APC caucus in the two chambers of the National Assembly.
“We believe that this kind of engagement is the way to go because people are elected from various background.
“They have full mandate and when they arrive at the two chambers, they are all equal. But the rules impose obligations on us to elect leadership and whatever criteria up, you will find more than one person who are qualified either by reason of formal education or by reference to ranking or loyalty and experience among others. Yet, we can only select one person for each of these positions…”
