The House of Representatives has denied having plans to institute impeachment processes against Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was said to have summoned the member representing Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency, Edo State, Mr Johnson Agbonayinma, who alleged that some members were collating signatures with the aim of impeaching Osinbajo.
Agbonayinma made the allegation while addressing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.
Speaking with our correspondent on the telephone shortly after, Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Abdulrazak Namdas, dismissed the claim.
Namdas said, “There is nothing like impeachment before the House of Representatives as I speak now. As far as I am concerned, I speak for the House, and there is nothing like impeachment before the House for consideration. I don’t speak for members, I speak for the House. But if there is anything, I don’t know.
“At least, officially before the House, there is nothing like that.”
Asked to speak as a member of the All Progressives Congress, Namdas said, “I am not aware (of the impeachment plot).
Agbonayinma made the allegation in a written speech entitled, ‘Call for Caution on the Purported Campaign to Smear the Office of the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Disgruntled Politicians and Some Media Houses.’
He said, “It has become necessary for me to add my voice to the call by many Nigerians on the purported campaigns of calumny by some political gladiators and media houses against the office and person of the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), on spurious allegations of corrupt practices levelled against him.
“(I am) Aware that signatures are being collated for the impeachment of the Vice-President. The reason is because of the outcome of the NEMA investigation.
“For the records, the issues raised in the probe on NEMA had to do with (alleged) misappropriation of funds by the director-general and the day-to-day running of the agency vis-a-vis financial spending, procurement processes, among others.”
Agbonayinma however failed to name those behind the campaign against Osinbajo when asked by journalists to do so.
“Don’t forget that I am a member of the APC. I am a Nigerian. Not everybody has the boldness and audacity to come out, not everybody. You have watched me on the floor of the House, I don’t play partisan politics. I supported the APC when I was in the PDP. Now I’m in the APC, I do support the PDP,” he said.
Agbonayinma was also asked why he raised the alarm when the APC, which is the ruling party, has the majority in the House and the Senate, making an impeachment of the president or VP impossible.
He said some APC lawmakers were not happy as the party failed to give them tickets for the 2019 general elections.
The House had probed into the activities of the National Emergency Management Agency in the North-East, during which it indicted Osinbajo being the Chairman of the Governing Board of NEMA and for approving funds to the agency as Acting President. The director-general of the agency also indicted.
The VP however denied breaching the law in all his activities regarding NEMA.
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