House Of Reps Group Vows To Resist APC From Stalling Passage Of 2014 Budget

A group in the House of Representatives, the National Unity Group, said it would resist All Progressives Congress (APC) directives to its lawmakers to stall the passage of the 2014 budget.

The groups’s spokesman, Rep. Bitrus Kaze (PDP-Plateau), made this known at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.

The group comprising Accord Party, Labour Party and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) members said it would everything possible to arrest the APC attempt to turn the country into a laughing stock.

“We, the National Unity Group in the House of Representatives wish to aver that any attempt to tamper with the 2014 budget and the Jonathan’s transformation agenda, will be met with robust resistance.

“No Nigerian anywhere will stand by and watch an opposition frustrate the hopes of millions of Nigerians,” he said.

Kaze urged APC members to concentrate on their legislative duties which include oversight responsibilities rather than engaging themselves in the problems in Rivers.

He said that the recent directives by the party to its legislators was provocative and would fail.

“We in the National Unity Group wish to add our voice to those calling for peace,’’ he said.

He said that as a multiparty platform, the group was ready to defend the Nigerian constitution as a matter of priority, adding: “our commitment to the Nigerian project is irrevocable.

“We, therefore, call on our colleagues whose sense of duty and patriotism remains unquestioned to reject the APC directives as unpatriotic and anti-progressive,” he said.

He disputed the claim by the APC that it was the majority in the house.

“Given the wrong premise upon which they are operating, we dispute the bogus claims of majority status by APC,’’ he said.

Rep. Kingsley Chinda (PDP-Rivers), in his contribution, said that the problem in Rivers was the refusal of the Commissioner of Police to carry out the orders of Gov. Rotimi Amaechi.

It would be recalled that the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Jan. 23 directed its members in the National Assembly to block all executive bills.

The bills include the 2014 Appropriation bill and screening of ministerial nominees and service chiefs.