The House of
Representatives have gone into an executive session to determine whether to
allow Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu access into
the Green Chambers.
That is to cool the
tempers which rose, as events of the last few days, regarding the unilateral
increase in the price of petrol, came to the fore Monday morning with members
disagreeing sharply on a motion to admit the minister to brief them on the
propriety of the increase.
 |
| Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of state for Petroleum. |
The Federal Government,
through Kachikwu, had, on Wednesday, last week, announced the increase from
N86.50 to N145, a move which has seen the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC),
threatening to shut down the entire country as from Wednesday, if the old price
is not reverted to.
Leader of the
House, Femi Gbajabiamila, had moved the motion for the lower legislative
chamber to admit Kachikwu into its fold, which was defeated when put to motion
by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
Regardless, of the voice
vote of nays carrying the day, the Speaker, still went ahead to rule in favour
of admitting the Minister, which was resisted by the naysayers, sparking off an
instant raucous situation.
The situation got to a
head when the members adopted party lines, with the All Progressives Congress
(APC) members shouting ‘change’ and their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
counterparts chorusing ‘shame,’ followed by All we are saying, save
Nigeria!
After a while, when
tempers eventually calmed, the members elected to retire to an executive
session on the strength of a motion moved by Deputy Minority Leader, Leo Ogor,
following the prompting of Dogara.
Series of meetings are
currently going on to stave off the massive action being proposed labour, made
of the NLC and its senior staff representatives counterpart, the Trade Union
Congress (TUC), with which they intend to get the federal government rescind
the decision.
Source Whirlwindnews.com
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