The majority leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila has described the suspension of Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin by the House for a period of 180 legislative days as unconstitutional and a breach of the rights of his constituency to have representation in the lower chamber.
Hon. Gbajabiamila in an interview with Thisday Newspaper said he would have preferred to matter to have been more transparent.
“Personally, I would have preferred that the matter be dealt with, in a more transparent manner, or for that matter, not even dealt with at all. I made this clear when we had our last principal officer’s meeting, and gave my reasons for this. Sometimes silence is golden, and you can take the moral high ground and just leave this alone,” he said.
“The fear of other principal officers, was that, if this message was not sent, a bad precedent would have been set, and there would be no basis for disciplining any member, in the future,” he said.
The majority leader who said he was not at the plenary during the vote for the suspension because he was at the clerk’s office with the speaker requesting for another approach.
“My concern on the suspension, is the same that I always had, even when Dino Melaye and others, were suspended in the 6th Assembly. More so, as this was a one year suspension. Now what is this concern? I find it difficult as a Constitutional Lawyer, to accept that our rules can actually pass constitutional muster, if put to test.
