Lai: Gate-scaling reps ‘paid price for democracy’

Lai Mohammed, the national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the policemen who prevented some lawmakers from gaining access into the national assembly on Thursday, deserve to face trial for treason.

Speaking on Sunday during Politics Today, a live programme on Channels Television, Mohammed accused the presidency and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of hatching a plot to impeach Aminu Tambuwal, the speaker of the house of representatives.

He said but for the “courageous act” of the APC legislators, Tambuwal’s fate would have ended like that of Adewale Omirin, the speaker of the Ekiti state house of assembly, who was impeached by seven of the 26 members of the assembly.

“The police should be held responsible for everything that transpired that day,” he said.

“They allowed the deputy speaker in and prevented the principal officer from entering the house. They are the ones that committed criminal act and should face treason trial.

“If there was no hidden agenda, why was the speaker denied access to perform his lawful duty?”

Mohammed said the action of the lawmakers who forced their way into the chambers was justifiable, adding that they did that to save the country’s democracy.

“If my house is on fire and the fire service fails to render assistance, I would go out of my way to rescue my wife and children,” he said.

“For every action there would be a reaction, every cause there would be an effect, I like to congratulate the members of the house of representatives who took their destinies in their hands because if they had not acted that way, the speaker would have been unlawfully removed.

“Those who climbed the gate paid the price for democracy, because the price of democracy is eternal vigilance. They were vigilant by outsmarting the police, the PDP and the presidency.

“On the eve of the incident, the police asked the sergeant-at-arms to deliver the mace but he refused. What is the business of the police with mace?”

Maintaining that Tambuwal has the right to remain as speaker, Mohammed sounded a note of warning to the police.

“There is no law of the land that says that the speaker should resign if he decamps to another party as long as he can prove that there was a crisis within his former party and the speaker acted within the ambit of the law because he has been able to establish the fact that there is crisis in his party,” he said.

“If Mr. President was being sincere, why did he prevent the house from sitting on that day? Why would the police teargas the lawmakers?

If the police will continue to obey unlawful order, citizens would continue to frustrate them. If the police repeats this act again, we shall encourage our members to the same. It is because the people in Ekiti refused to do this that seven people allegedly impeached the speaker.”

Femi Fani Kayode, a former minister of aviation, who was also on the programme, disagreed with Mohammed, saying the lawmakers should have taken the issue up in an appropriate manner.

Fani Kayode described the impeachment plot as purely false and branded the incident “a big shame”.