Following division on reaching a consensus, the House of Representatives on Tuesday resolved to invite the President Muhammadu Buhari to address members in plenary over the security crises across the country.
RemIns of the slaughtered Borno farmers
The plenary had turned rowdy as members were sharply divided over a motion seeking to invite the President to appear before the lawmakers to explain the rising spate of insecurity in the country after the murder of 43 rice farmers in Borno on Saturday by the Boko Haram sect.
Efforts by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila; Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa; and Chairman, House Committee on Air Force, Shehu Koko, among others, to have the prayer dropped proved abortive.
Gbajabiamila’s plea that a state of emergency be adopted instead was also rebuffed.
The speaker was forced to ask that the lawmakers have an executive (closed-door) session.
Emerging from the closed-door session, Gbajabiamila asked one of the sponsors of the motion, Ahmad Jaha, to make an amendment to the motion.
Jaha prayed the House to invite the president as proposed in the original motion.
The Speaker put the amended motion to a voice vote and it was unanimously adopted by the lawmakers.
