The House of Representatives has postponed its scheduled resumption of plenary from Wednesday to December 16.
A statement by the Clerk to the House, Mr. Mohammed Sani-Omolori, late on Tuesday, explained that the decision was to allow the members to participate in the primaries of their respective political parties.
It added that the House had to postpone the resumption after the parties adjusted their initial calendar for the primaries.
“The House will now resume on Tuesday, 16th December, 2014 at 10am.
“The leadership of the House took note of the adjustment in the calendar of the political parties and took the decision for the postponement to allow members of the House participate in the forthcoming primaries of their political parties,” part of Sani-Omolori’s statement read.
The development confirmed an exclusive story by The PUNCH on Tuesday that the resumption was not feasible.
Many lawmakers had confided in The PUNCH on Monday that they were preoccupied with fighting for a return ticket in 2015.
One of them had said, “You don’t expect members to come and sit in Abuja on December 3, just days to their primaries, do you?
“Why does anybody want us to come and sit here when we should be contesting for our return tickets?”
Besides the party primaries, The PUNCH had also observed that December 3 (Wednesday) was an odd date for the House to reconvene after a break.
Members have traditionally resumed on Tuesdays.
House Deputy Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, had admitted there was indeed a mistake in selecting the initial date.
“So much was happening at the time the date was taken that we did not realise 3rd is even a Wednesday,” Ogor had said.
