A member of the House of Representatives, Johnson Agbonayinma (APC, Edo), has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of selling the Apo Legislative Quarters because of his third term agenda.
The lawmaker stated this in Abuja on Wednesday while contributing to a motion by Segun Adekola (PDP, Ekiti), on “A Call for Change of Name of Apo Legislative Quarters to Reflect Current Reality.”
According to Agbonayinma, it was wrong to continue to refer to the buildings as “legislative or legislators’ quarters” since they are no longer housing sitting lawmakers, insisting that the former president sold what belongs to all Nigerians for his selfish interests.
“Mr. Speaker there is no monument. Obasanjo sold the quarters because of his selfish third term agenda. He sold what belongs to all Nigerians because of his selfish interests. So, there is no monument in the first place,” Agbonayinma insisted.
However, Simon Arabo (PDP, Kaduna) raised a point of Order 9, Rule 1, which he said mandates “lawmakers to confine their contributions to matters relevant to the issue at hand.”
“What has this issue to do with third term agenda?,” Arabo queried.
Earlier, Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun (APC, Osun) had argued in support of the motion on the grounds that the word “legislative” had to be replaced with “legislators” to depict the main purpose of the buildings.
Pally Iriase (APC, Edo) said there was no need to change the name of what he called “one of Nigeria’s national monuments which would remind posterity of our history.”
Meanwhile, Adekola, while leading debates on the motion, had called on the House to consider changing the name of the quarters to reflect current reality.
Consequently, when put to voice votes by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the ‘nays’ had their way and the motion was thrown out.
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