The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, has announced the reconvening of the House for Thursday.
Tambuwal, who had earlier fixed the resumption of the House for December 3, said the reconvening was to consider the request by President Goodluck Jonathan for the extension of emergency rule in three North East states.
He said in a statement on Tuesday: “On Tuesday, 18th November 2014, I received a communication from the President,Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR, requesting for the extension of the existing State of Emergency in Adamawa , Borno and Yobe States by the House of Representatives.
“Pursuant to the powers conferred on me by Section 305 ( 2 ) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, which requires me to “forthwith convene or arrange a meeting of the House” and in order to treat the extension before the expiration of the current State of Emergency in accordance with Section 305 (6) (c) of the Constitution, I hereby reconvene the House of Representatives, currently on Recess, as follows:
“Date: Thursday, 20th November, 2014
“Time: 11:00 am prompt
“Venue: House of Representatives Chambers,
“Agenda: Consideration of Mr President’s request for extension of the existing State of Emergency.
“All Honourable Members are requested to attend this Special Session, please.”
Tambuwal had fixed December 3 for resumption of plenary shortly after announcing his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
It is expected that the plenary on Thursday will be tension soaked as the clamour for the removal of Tambuwal has not died down.
The PDP wants him to quit as speaker, having left the party through which he came into office.
The case is however in court.