A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. John Chike Okafor has vowed that lawmakers from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC will resist any attempts to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari.
Okafor, a second timer in the House representing Mbano/Ihette Uboma/Obowo Federal Constituency of Imo State was reacting to the recent decision of the minority caucuses both in the Senate and the House to serve impeachment notice on the President of he failed to address the escalated situation challenges in the country.
It will be recalled that the Senate minority caucus led by the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP on Wednesday staged a walkout from the plenary over the issue, vowing to remove the President from office if the situation persisted after 6 weeks.
On Thursday, their counterpart in the House of Representatives joined in the decision.
But reacting to the resolution of the minority caucuses, Okafor in an interview with Saturday Vanguard said the lawmakers were grandstanding to be noticed by their constituents.
Arguing that the APC government inherited the security challenges but was addressing it head-on, Okafor who was successful in the last APC’s primary election boasted that the ruling party has the numbers to resist any impeachment on the President.
He said: “This is no time for us to play politics. Look at the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train. Nobody was sure who the bandits were going to meet in that train. It could have been any person. Insecurity generally doesn’t know any political party. Doesn’t know any religion. It doesn’t know any tribe.
“We are concerned. We are all bothered. We should look beyond partisanship. We should also look beyond the government because it wasn’t any better in the previous PDP led administration. We are still talking about the Chibok girls. They were not kidnapped under Buhari’s watch.
“You can tell me also that worst things have happened under the watch of the APC government. But one thing I want to emphasize is that insecurity did not start under Buhari but we pray it will end with him. I believe that the government is worried. I believe that the government is not overwhelmed. I believe that the government is making very honest and sincere effort to arrest the situation.
“So, bring it home to what happened in the Senate. I want to repeat that everybody is bothered whether you are a minority caucus or majority caucus. But rising up to grandstand, like when people say you want to trend, you want to catch cruise, I can tell you that is what they did. Is that how you start an impeachment proceeding against a sitting president in advanced democracies, even in our democracy?
“You must sit down and put together the articles of impeachment. Put them together and then begin the process. You don’t just get up because you are on national TV. You want to catch cruise. You want to let your constituents know that you are talking, that is playing to the gallery. That is not it. That is not what will bring the solution we are looking for.
“You and I will know that they also want to be in power, like we are in power. We will not join forces with them. We will not support them. We have the numbers. You know what they say that the minority will have its say but majority also will always have its way. At the end of the day, it will come down to numbers. We, the APC members of the House are convinced that the government is honest and sincere about the decision and approach to keep Nigeria safe and make life better for us.
“We are not going to keep our eyes open and allow them. We have the numbers, we will out number them. If it is about speaking grammar, we will speak grammar. If it is about quoting law, we will quote laws.”
