Speaker Aminu Tambuwal
Speaker
of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has said the
state pardon granted former Bayelsa State governor Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha was ill-timed.
Speaking on the Hausa Service of
Radio France International monitored yesterday, Tambuwal said even
though the government has the powers to grant the pardon, the decision
came at the wrong time.
“In my own opinion I am not in support of the decision taken by the presidency,” he said.
“However, as a government, they have
the right to do so, but the question we need to ask here is, is this the
right time to take such decision?”
The state pardon was approved by the
Council of State last Tuesday at a meeting in Abuja which Tambuwal
himself attended. But he did not say in the RFI interview if he raised
any objection during the council meeting. Tambuwal said many members of
the House have expressed displeasure with the state pardon granted
Alamieyeseigha.
Speaking on the controversial immunity
for Federal lawmakers, the speaker said what many people “don’t
understand is that the law existed in the past, which allows members to
make comments on the floor of the House by saying the truth.”
He said but there was a court
judgement that said the law was not in harmony with the political system
of the country because it first came into being in 1965.
“Therefore it was proposed that the law should be revived in order to give the legislators that cover,” the speaker said.
“Let me give you an example: in Malawi
there are some legislators that were charged with treason because of
some comments they made on the floor of the assembly over the
controversy that followed the death of the former president. So if as a
lawmaker you don’t have that cover, you won’t be able to make any input
before the House,” he added.
DailyTrust
