Idris Wase has revealed his reasons for not allowing Gbilah give a petition before lawmakers. According to him, his move was rigorously based on rules of parliamentary procedures. He said this after the criticism that greeted his actions, The deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, stated that his decision to stop a member of the House, Mark Gbilah, from putting down a petition last Thursday “was strictly based on rules of parliamentary process”.
The deputy speaker disclosed this in a statement by his media aide, Umar Puma, on Monday Mr Wase was reacting to a trending video, showing him preventing Mr Gbilah from laying a petition while he (Wase) was presiding during plenary session. Idris Wase, said his decision to prevent Mark Gbilah, from laying a petition was strictly based on rules of parliamentary procedures.
Mr Gbillah, who represents Gwer East-Gwer West constituency of Benue State, was presenting a petition by a socio-cultural association based in the United States but was disallowed from doing so by the deputy speaker. The lawmaker explained the synopsis of the petition that some indigenes of his state had been sacked from their ancestral lands. The video had since been trending with many Nigerians criticising the deputy speaker for not allowing Nigerians in diaspora to air their views.
But Mr Wase said the House could not grant him the leave to present the petition “because the petitioners were faceless and based outside the shores of Nigeria”. Explaining his action further on Monday, the deputy speaker alleged that the reports in circulation had been “doctored, slanted and bent to give political and ethnic coloration to an event that was otherwise strictly based on parliamentary procedures”. He said he prevented the lawmaker from presenting the petition “based on the identity(ies) of the petitioners and not based on the fact that they are based outside Nigeria. Recall that Legit.ng had earlier reported that in what will shock many Nigerians, Wase claimed that Nigerians in the Diaspora have no right sending petitions to the House on issues happening in Nigeria.
The deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, claimed they have no right to complain about insecurity since they don’t live around.
