The speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has distanced the House from the ongoing stamp duty charge controversy between a member of the green chamber, Gudaji Kazaure, and some government officials.
Mr Kazaure, who represents Kazaure/Roni/Gwiwa/Yankwashi Federal Constituency had claimed that over N89 trillion of stamp duty charge is missing.
The lawmaker claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed him as the secretary of a presidential committee on reconciliation and the recovery of all stamp duties.
Mr Kazaure also accused the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emeifele, in connivance with some government officials, of trying to truncate the efforts of the committee to recover the money.
But speaking to a State House correspondent on Tuesday, after a meeting with the president, Mr Gbajabiamilla said Mr Kazaure and his team were not working for the legislature.
He said: “Kazure, from my understanding, he’s working with whoever he is working with. If it necessitates the House coming in, we will come in.
“If he has an official function, he should go ahead and do his work. But this has nothing to do with National Assembly. Not that I know of.
“It was not based on a motion from the National Assembly. I believe he said he had the executive authority to do what he was doing. If that be the case, I mean, then it’s got nothing to do with the National Assembly.”
The speaker explained that Mr Kazaure had not defame the character of the House or its members to necessitate any action.
“The House can only call Kazure to order to the extent that he is impugning on the integrity of the House or individuals or leadership of the House that have nothing to do with what he’s doing.
“I think it’s important to separate the two. If he has the mandate to do something, that’s on him.
“When it came up, we asked members of the executive, and they said they were not aware of any mandate or such mandate has been withdrawn.
“I don’t want to get into it except to the extent that he tries to impugn on the integrity of members of the House. And that’s a no-no. We have nothing to do with this,” he protested.
When asked about the meeting with the president, the speaker said: “It’s the regular routine discussions on state matters and of national interest. I haven’t seen the President in a little while. He’s been away. He just got back. Of course, also his birthday.
“But more importantly, we had to discuss issues surrounding state matters.”
When the speaker was pressed further to expatiate, he said, “Things have come up in the last few weeks. I’m sure you know some of these things.
“And I just wanted to get his perspective on them and give him mine and the National Assembly’s perspective and position on those matters. And we had a fruitful discussion.
“Well, I wasn’t actually intending to talk to the press. It was just a discussion between the President and me but of course, there were issues around cashless policy, issues around elections and violence that seem to be erupting here and there and a couple of other very important matters as well.”
