We Are United, Determined To Override Buhari’s Veto On Electoral Act Bill, Saraki, Dogara Vow

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By Sadiq Umar – The National Assembly says its leadership are united in their resolve to override President Muhammadu Buhari’s vote on the electoral amendment bill, even as it dispelled rumoured disagreement on the issue.

The two chambers dismissed as untrue the reports that President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara are divided on the move to override president veto.

In a joint statement by special advisers to the Senate President and Speaker, Yusuf Olaniyan and Turaki Hassan respectively, the leadership said the move would deppen democracy, insisting that “the National Assembly is on firm constitutional and legal grounds to amend the law as well as take decisions in the manner they have been responding.”

President Muhammadu Buhari had withheld assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill which re-ordered the sequence of 2019 general elections.

Some pro-Buhari lawmakers have also been strategizing on how to frustrate the move to override the president’s veto, with some national dailies speculating division within their ranks.

But the leadership in a statement weekend faulted the reports describing “it as mere distraction and unnecessary misrepresentation aimed at creating division in the Federal Legislature.

“Our attention has been drawn to reports in a national daily insinuating that there was a disagreement between Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara over how both chambers of the National Assembly will react to the withholding of assent by President Muhammadu Buhari on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill,” it said in the statement.

We wish to inform the public that there is no such disagreement between the two leaders, and indeed the two chambers of the National Assembly.

“The Senate President and the Speaker, as heads of the two chambers of the National Assembly and representing the views of their colleagues, will want everybody to know that they are on the same page on what is the appropriate reaction to the President’s withholding of assent on the Electoral Act amendment bill.

“There is no disagreement between the two chambers as well as their presiding officers. The leadership of the two chambers constantly hold discussions and are in agreement on what to do, how to do it, when to do it and why it must be done.

“The issue at stake is not personal. It is about deepening democracy. It is about improving our democracy and the National Assembly is on firm constitutional and legal grounds to amend the law as well as take decisions in the manner they have been responding. ”

We see that story and the insinuations contained in it as mere distraction and unnecessary misrepresentation aimed at creating division in the Federal Legislature.

The Senate President, Speaker and their colleagues urge members of the public to discountenance the report.

Yusuph Olaniyonu and Turaki Hassan

Special Advisers (Media) to Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representives

 

 

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