THE House of Representatives has faulted the call by the Peoples Democratic Party caucus on Nigerians to ask the National Assembly to impeach the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The House said the call had an ulterior motive, especially as Buhari was billed to appear before the lawmakers soon, to explain the rising spate of insecurity in the country.

Leader of the PDP caucus, Mr Kingsley Chinda, had earlier on Sunday in a statement titled ‘PDP caucus mourns, says Nigeria saddled with the circus’, called on Nigerians to compel their representatives in the National Assembly to immediately commence impeachment proceedings against the President for his (Buhari) “gross incompetence and persistent and continuous breach of Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution.”

Chinda had also called on members of the Federal Executive Council to invoke the provisions of Section 144 (1) of the Constitution by declaring that Buhari was incapable of discharging the functions of the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Chinda, while reacting to the recent killing of 43 rice farmers in Zambarmari area of Borno State, had said the reactions from the Presidency and the military to such killings “highlight a certain crassness and lame duck attitude that has for the past five years come to define the Buhari presidency.”

The lawmaker had said it was disheartening to the caucus that the President failed to lead Nigerians from the front as he promised.

However, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Benjamin Kalu, in reaction to Chinda, dismissed the call as an opinion of a member of the opposition.

Kalu, in a statement titled ‘Re: Nigeria saddled with the circus…Hon Kingsley Chinda and his lone voyage of impeachment call,’ said the opinion “does not represent the weakest opinion of the minority caucus of the 9th House.

He said, “Even among the minority caucus, Hon Kingsley Chinda lost the opportunity to speak for the entire minority when he lost the minority leadership election to Hon Ndudi Elumelu, the Minority Leader of the 9th Assembly, a wound that has refused to heal.

“In the view of the 9th Assembly, it would remain a call made wrongfully to distract the members whose minds are set on the visit and the expected achievements. It is surprising that Hon Kingsley Chinda was among those who insisted on the invitation of the President, probably expecting a gross disregard from the President, who surprisingly broke the jinx and kindly obliged our request.”

Punch