The House of Representatives has summoned the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Taoreed Lagbaja, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun to appear before the House in plenary session.
The Service Chiefs were invited to appear as part of the Sectorial Debates introduced by the House Pursuant to Order 17, Rules 1(3) of the Standing Orders of the House.
The Service Chiefs were to meet with the parliament to discuss their constitutional responsibilities to ensure the security of lives and property as well as the territorial integrity of the nation.
However, the Service Chiefs and the IGP sent representatives in their stead, but the House refused to accept their representatives and demanded that the Service Chiefs appear in person.
The House Leader, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, moved a motion to allow the representatives to speak on behalf of their principals, but the motion was seconded by Aliyu Sani Madaki and defeated by the House.
The Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, then objected to the appearance of the representatives, stating that although the representatives were competent in their capacities, they would not be allowed to speak on behalf of their principals.
Kalu said, “Mr Speaker, I want to move, that Chief Executives, be it private sector or public sector, they must come in person. I want to pray that we don’t break this sacred tradition of our House less we be taken for granted.”
“I therefore move that this sectoral engagement be suspended until the leaders of the agencies that we invited who are our friends, who are working for Nigeria, people we are proud of, come. They should come to address us, take our questions and explain certain things to us.”
After the Deputy Speaker’s motion was seconded by Nnolim Nnaji, the Speaker, Abbas Tajuddeen, put the motion to a voice vote and was adopted by the House.
Tajuddeen said, “Our dear brothers, you have heard from the House in an emphatic manner, that this House does not encourage, does not accept representation particularly at this high-level engagement.”
“We thank you for coming. Please convey our message to your service chiefs, that we understand the tight schedules they have and we are willing to make an adjustment to reschedule this engagement to Tuesday next week for them to appear in persons.”
The House of Representatives has rescheduled the Sectorial Debate with the Service Chiefs to Tuesday next week.
