The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it would field candidates for the various principal offices in the National Assembly.
The party said its elected senators and members of the House of Representatives are constitutionally eligible and can seek election into any presiding offices of both chambers of the National Assembly.
The PDP, in a statement on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said the position of the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker are not exclusively for any political party, but a constitutional right of every elected lawmaker in both chambers.
The party cautioned President Buhari and the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole to respect the independence of the legislature and “end their imposition plot and sowing of seeds of discord among the lawmakers” saying such is against national interest.
“It is therefore laughable and amounts to empty grandstanding and self-delusion for President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to posture as if the presiding offices and Committee Chairmanship in the National Assembly are exclusive rights of the APC.
“President Buhari and Oshiomhole should wake up to the fact that the National Assembly belongs to no political party but to all Nigerians, who exercise their control through their elected representatives.
“The PDP, therefore, does not only have a constitutional say in the process of the emergence of the leadership of the 9th National Assembly, but will, as a matter of constitutional right, field candidates into presiding offices of both chambers, if need be.
“The PDP wishes to remind President Buhari and Oshiomhole that the APC had in the past benefited from the provisions of section 50, with the defection of then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal from the PDP to the APC, in October 2014, without relinquishing the speakership of the House to the PDP; a development that was applauded by President Buhari, as then opposition leader as well as the APC, through its then National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed,” the party said.
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