All Progressives Congress members in the House of Representatives on Wednesday vowed to block the 2014 Appropriation Bill and other Executive Bills, in line with the party’s directive to them.
The lawmakers, however, said that they would block the 2014 budget “with moderation”.
The position of the caucus was made known by the Minority Leader of the House, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, at a news conference in Abuja.
Gbajabiamila said that the recurrent expenditure component in the budget would be isolated and passed for the sake of Nigerian workers.
“In coming to this decision, we note that salaries of many innocent Nigerians are tied to the budget,” he said.
He maintained that members of the party would not support a budget that had no provision for welfare of the people, stressing that APC lawmakers “will not rubber stamp a budget that seeks to borrow more money”.
The legislator said that it was out of place to allocate only 25 per cent of the budget to capital expenditure and had only 30 per cent of it implemented.
He also disclosed that appropriation to the Nigerian Police Force would not be supported by the party.
“We will not be a party to the appropriation of funds and taxpayers money to a police that will turn around and use same to maim the same taxpayers,” Gbajabiamila said.
The minority leader explained that APC was not doing anything strange in blocking the appropriation bill, saying that such actions were ingredients of checks and balances.
He stated that being against bills was not new in the lower parliament as, according to him, most bills presented on the floor through the PDP leadership in the past, suffered “instant death”.
The APC had on Jan. 23, directed its members in the National Assembly to block all executive bills, including the 2014 Appropriation Bill, until the Federal Government addressed the crisis in Rivers.
Meanwhile, 10 APC members from Kano State, who are members of the House of Representatives, have reaffirmed their membership of the party.
The deputy minority leader in the House, Rep. Abdulrahman Kawu, who spoke on behalf of others, said that they remained members of APC in spite of the defection of former governor of the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, to the PDP.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, Kawu said “we wish to make it categorically clear today that we are not leaving the APC for any political party.
“We are not unaware of the daunting challenges confronting our new party since we are all coming from different political parties and background.
“We wish to call on our constituents and Nigerians in general to give their support and contribution towards providing strong platform for progressive-minded politicians”.
He called on APC leaders and members to continue to advocate and practise transparency, fairness, internal democracy and adherence to rule of law.
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