A member of the House of Representatives, Ben Igbakpa, who represents Ethiope Federal Constituency of Delta State, has attacked the leadership of the National Assembly over alleged failure to hold President Muhammadu Buhari accountable.
The lawmaker said the ban on Twitter operation in Nigeria is an infringement on citizens fundamental human rights. Mr Igbakpa, a member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expressed his anger against the leadership of the national assembly in a post on Tuesday.
He said he would not stop to use Twitter and also encouraged his constituents to disobey Mr Buhari’s order.
“We reached the unfortunate juncture where party politics overtook the sanctity of national interest and objective leadership in @HouseNGR. As representatives of our people, we are disappointed that our privileges are suppressed in favour of executive impunity. We walked out today.”
“We must set our nation in the motion of recovery if we want to reach vital progress. We are co-participants on the margin of #NigeriaBelongsToUs. We walked out of the plenary today recognizing the congressional failure to hold the President accountable for his terrible actions.”
“We have to establish a conscious link between policy change and authoritarianism. We have to reexamine the relationship between the parliament and the executive. Our people say when the handshake has gone beyond the elbow, then we must question the agenda,” he wrote on Twitter.
He further said “there are questions about the steady rise of impunity of the executive. Congress must also show support and include minority interests. We do not have an APC national assembly to only uphold the participation of members of its affinity group. This is a debasement of democracy.”
“We have to #KeepitOn. I never stopped using Twitter because I recognized it is a violation of my right as a person. #TwitterbaninNigeria is a demonstration of the height of the shortcoming of the executive. We as members of @OfficialPDPNig align with the preference of Nigerians,” he wrote angrily on Tuesday.
