From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
House of Representatives has rescheduled the commencement of its sectoral debate, insisting that all the service chiefs, including Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Naval Staff and the Inspector General of Police must appear in persons before it.
They were listed to address lawmakers, yesterday, to kick-off the sectoral debates, a programme designed for heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to brief the parliament on their activities.
However, the service chiefs all sent representatives, a development that infuriated the lawmakers.
Consequently, the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, directed the Chief of Defence Staff, Maj Gen Christopher Musa; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Hassan Abubakar and the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun to appear before the parliament for the sectoral briefing in person on Tuesday next week.
Shortly after the representatives finished introducing themselves, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, raised a constitutional point of order, and observed that the service chiefs cannot appear before the House by proxy.
Kalu, relying on Section 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, said the parliament is empowered to invite anybody to appear before it in person. The deputy speaker noted that while he appreciates the profiles of the representatives, the service chiefs should, as a matter of necessity, appear before the House in person.
According to him, “Sections 88 and 89 of the Nigerian Constitution empower the House to invite anybody in person. The House extended invitations to heads of security agencies not for the purposes of investigations but for dialogue and establishment of the things around security.
“It behoves the agencies to send their number one officers because the parliament is the number one parliament of government. The gentlemen they have sent have great profiles. They have served the nation in various capacities and are competent to discuss with us but the Constitution based on the provisions of Sections 88 and 89, has not been satisfied.
“One may ask why their number one officers have not appeared before the House. It has been the tradition of the House that when leaders are invited, be they from the public or private sector, they must appear in person. I want to say that we should not create a separate tradition for our House.
“I, therefore, move that this sectoral engagement be suspended until the leaders of the security agencies that we invited who are our friends, and working for Nigeria, and who we are proud of, come to address us personally.”
Thereafter, the House resolved to turn back the representatives while the speaker, Abbas, directed the service chiefs to appear next Tuesday.