The House of Representatives has apologised to President Muhammadu Buhari for inviting him to address members on rising insecurity in the country, The Nation reported.
According to the report, the lawmakers are also no longer interested in summoning the president now or in the near future over the matter.
On December 1, the lower chamber summoned Buhari to address the House on his administration’s efforts to curb rising insecurity in the country.
The members that generated the summon had sought to seek presidential intervention following the killing of 43 farmers in Zabarmari, Borno State.
Satomi Ahmad, the lawmaker in whose constituency the killing occurred, backed by nine other lawmakers from Borno State, read the motion seeking Buhari’s invitation.
A day later, Speaker of the House, Femi Gbabajabiamila said he got assurance from the presidency that the president would honour the invitation.
However, the president spurned the invitation, after the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami SAN explained that the House had no constitutional right to summon the president to address it on insecurity.
The members involved in generating the summon were said to have tendered the apology after the House leadership found that the summon took on political and ethnic colourations.
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Recall that few days to the day the president was due to appear before the House, some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers led by PDP caucus leader, Hon. Kingsley Chinda demanded the president’s impeachment.
An unnamed principal officer of the House quoted by The Nation said, “The House of Representatives has foreclosed or dropped any immediate or future plans to invite President Muhammadu Buhari over insecurity in the country because a harmless motion has become political.
“I can tell you that we will no longer revisit the invitation. But we will be interacting with Service Chiefs and other ministers in charge of the nation’s security.
“The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its lawmakers capitalised on the motion to cast aspersions on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. What we never intended became the issue.
“Some governors and strategists in government insinuated that the House leadership was working for a different political interest. That was why they pulled the strings from the Senate.
“At a point, the row over the invitation was turned into a North-South divide if not for the political dexterity of the House leadership.
“We also got intelligence that some of those lawmakers who sponsored the motion because of Zabamari rice farmers went through the back door to the Presidency to apologise over their insistence that the President must appear before the National Assembly.”