Sources: National assembly leadership never agreed to reconvene Tuesday

The leadership of the national assembly never agreed to reconvene on Tuesday, TheCable has learnt.

Last week, Yusuf Lasun, deputy speaker of the house of representatives, announced the lawmakers will be cutting short their recess to reconvene this week.

He had said the agenda will primarily be the presidential request for virement of funds for the operations of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019 elections.

However, unlike the customary practice, less than 24 hours to the planned date (Tuesday), the lawmakers are yet to be informed of the decision to cut short the recess.

Various lawmakers who spoke to TheCable said they have not received any of such letter from Mohammed Sani-Omolori, clerk of the national assembly.

A national assembly official said contrary to Lasun’s claim, the leadership was yet to decide on a date to reconvene.

One of the sources said what was agreed at the meeting with Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, was that the relevant committees should work with INEC on sorting the commission’s budget.

“There is nothing like that (reconvening),” the source said, adding: “I wonder who told the deputy speaker the national assembly will reconvene, it is not true. They won’t reconvene tomorrow.

“If the lawmakers are reconvening, you would have seen the announcement in the media. To the best of my knowledge, no plan to reconvene.

“What they did that day was that they told the committees to start working with the INEC leadership; you know the budget brought was too much. So they asked them to work with INEC on it so that whenever they are reconvening, it will be to follow the other due process and work on what the committee has.”

“It is possible (to reconvene); you can’t rule it out. But currently, nothing like that,” he said.

Abdulrazak Namdas, spokesman of the house of representatives, also confirmed to TheCable that the lawmakers were yet to be informed about any plan to cut short the recess.

“I have not been officially communicated (regarding reconvening on Tuesday),” he told TheCable on phone.