•ADP tackles Buhari over high cost of food items
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), yesterday, urged the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, over pervasive insecurity and other knotty issues confronting Nigeria.
Its spokesperson, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, who made the call at a press conference in Abuja, flayed President Muhammadu Buhari for allegedly failing to protect life and property.
He lamented that life has become so cheap in the land that leaders “do not even show empathy anymore.”
The group, therefore, appealed to opposition lawmakers to work “in alliance with patriotic members who are imprisoned in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and seeking liberation to commence action and impeach the two presiding officers immediately.”
This is even as the Action Democratic Party (ADP) faulted the President’s claim that hoarders were responsible for the high cost of food items in the country.
The National Chairman, Yabagi Sani, at a media briefing to close the party’s 10th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), contended that the appalling level of insecurity, alleged corrupt practices coupled with the attendant high cost of fuel and the fall in the value of the naira were behind the inflationary trend on food prices.
The Niger State-born politician submitted: “We, in the ADP, believe that the reigning inhibiting prices of foodstuff cannot be explained simplistically as the outcome of the ‘artificial shortages created by middlemen, who have been buying and hoarding these essential commodities for profiteering.’
“To us, this is infantile logic, and nothing can be further from the truth. Hoarding going by elementary logic, is only possible in a situation of abundance, but what we have is a situation of scarcity. What then are the alleged middlemen buying and hoarding?”
Speaking further, Ugochinyere claimed that Lawan and Gbajabiamila had reportedly failed to guide their colleagues in undertaking effective checks on the executive arm of government.
He alleged: “They do not have respect again, as several members of the Executive ignore them even when they are officially summoned.”
Ugochinyere hinted that the CUPP has filed a suit at the Federal High Court, seeking an order of mandamus to compel the National Assembly to “investigate several allegations of gross misconduct against Buhari.”
The coalition alleged of plan to derail the 2023 general elections “by forcing Nigerians to either accept that there would be no electronic transmission of results or the Electoral Act amendment process will not be completed in good time for the President to accent to it for use during the poll.”
According to him, “this is an insult on the sensibilities and sensitivities of the Nigerian people because this process of Electoral Act amendment commenced since 2016 and has not been completed five years after.”
He claimed that the APC National Assembly members “have agreed to drag this process and get up to their next year’s annual vacation by which time, it will be too late.”
The spokesman declared that Nigerians wanted electronic transmission of results, “and INEC is ready for it and has accepted it has capacity for it and the position is immutable.”
He stated that the citizens would resist any attempt to rob the electoral umpire of its constitutionally-guaranteed independence by way of “subjecting any of its activities to the political whims and caprices of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).”
On the nation’s rising debt profile, Ugochinyere said opposition parties will soon declare a citizens’ national day of action in protest against continued borrowing.
Arguing more borrowings were unsustainable, CUPP regretted the huge sums going for debt serving.
The coalition insisted that Nigeria’s debts have increased by 366 per cent since 2015.
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