The House of Representatives was on Wednesday divided along party line as APC lawmakers condemned the arrest and detention of a lawmaker, Hon. Farah Dagogo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
This was sequel to a motion of urgent national importance sponsored by Chisom Dike (APC, Rivers) on the arrest and detention of the lawmaker, asking the House to condemn same and call for his release yo enable him participate in the governorship screening and primaries of his party.
Presenting the motion, he urged the House to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Ministry of Justice to use his powers under the constitution to withdraw and take over the matter from the magistrate court.
Dike also prayed that the House prevail on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to release Dagogo from detention where he is held at the State Criminal Investigation Department in Rivers State.
He also asked that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) should ensure the screening of Farah Dagogo for the governorship position.
Speaking earlier, the Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase expressed concern over the incident in Rivers State and asked the House Rivers Caucus to brief the House on actions taken so far.
Wase said, “this matter affects one of us. It is not about party and could be anybody”.
Contributing to the matter, the Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu, urged the APC to wash off it hands over the issue hence Farah Dagogo was a member of their party, (PDP).
“I am aware that Chisom is a member of your party (APC, referring to the presiding officer, Femi Gbajabiamila) but that’s not where I am going to. Chinda has already said we should toe the line of reconciliation in this matter”.
Speaking further, Elumelu insisted that prayers of the motion were contrary to a call for reconciliation. Demanding deletion of the prayers.
In his remarks, the presiding officer, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila urged the members not to take sides, describing Governor Wike as “a good man.”
“As leaders we have to approach this matter objectively. We need to be seeing to assist Dagogo. It is obvious we are speaking with sentiment and it should not be so. Let us approach this matter cautiously”, Gbajabiamila noted.
However, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) in his submission urged that the matter should be discussed at the leadership level and not the way it’s currently being handled.
“I would have suggested that this matter should not even be discussed here. It is very sensitive.
“There’s another point to this story, because the mover of the motion who was not present at the scene of the incident has obviously skewed the facts. If not for God’s intervention, this House would have been holding a minute silence for at least three of its members who could have been cut down in the planned attack. There was a plan to use dynamite in that place. “Who knows who would not has survived on that day, or how many would have been injured?”, Chinda asked.
Meanwhile passing the motion, the House resolved that its leadership weighs into the matter with a view to finding amicable resolution.
Meanwhile, the lawmaker, Hon. Dagogo is said to have been taken to the hospital for treatment by the police authority in Rivers.
The lawmaker was said to have complained about chest and stomach pain necessitating his evacuation to the hospital.
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