PDP Caucus Southern Governors Resolutions
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the National Assembly has backed southern governors in adopting the resolutions of establishing state police, electoral reform and five per cent oil equity share for host communities.
This was communicated by the House Minority Leaders, Enyinnaya Abaribe and Ndudi Elumelu, at a joint press briefing yesterday. The PDP lawmakers also described the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government as a failure.
It would be recalled that during their meeting in Lagos on Monday, the governors had rejected moves to alter the Electoral Act to remove electronic transmission of results and the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) with three per cent share of oil revenue for host communities.
The lawmakers also commended the governors for their bold step in taking a common position on national issues despite their party differences.
They described as “unpatriotic and mischievous” alleged attempts to meddle with a critical component of the electoral bill, subvert the democratic process, institutionalise rigging, bastardise, and frustrate genuine efforts towards credible elections in the country.
According to Abaribe, “Electronic transmission of results is the only way to eliminate malpractice and manipulations associated with manual collation of results, including alteration, switching and disappearance of election materials while on transit to various collation centres.”
He noted that the joint PDP caucus was already taking very strong and uncompromising steps in ensuring that the provision guaranteeing the electronic transmission of results is not interfered with.
They also agreed with the governor’s demand that they must be informed before any security institution undertakes any operation in their states as chief security officers in the states.
The joint PDP caucus also supported the governors demand that deductions from the Federation Account for the Nigeria Police Security Trust Fund be distributed among the states and Federal Government to combat security challenges.
Abaribe added that the caucus has agreed with the southern governors to reject the three per cent share of oil revenue to host communities which the senate passed instead of the five per cent share as passed by the House of Representatives.
“As a joint caucus, we have set up very strong machinery to ensure that, in the interest of justice and fairness, the percentage of share of the oil revenue to the host community does not fall below expectation,” he added.
