Lawmakers in the House of Representatives have vowed to
proceed with impeachment moves against President Goodluck Jonathan over non
implementation of the 2012 budget, Daily Trust heard in Abuja yesterday.
The House had on July 19th 2012 threatened to commence
impeachment proceedings against the president over failure of the federal
government to implement the budget.
Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal had last week directed
chairmen of all the 89 standing committees to submit reports on level of
implementation of the 2012 budget by Ministries, Departments and Agencies
(MDAs) under their oversight.
Daily Trust gathered that, the MPs have now resolved to
push for impeachment during a pre-resumption meeting held on Sunday night at
official residence of one of the principal officers in Abuja
A member who attended the meeting but does not want to
be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter said “it is the
resolve of the House that if the report of the committees on budget
implementation indicates failure, the parliament will not collect the 2013
appropriation bill. The budget has to be implemented to a reasonable degree”.
“We are not just issuing threats but its our resolve
that anybody who refused to implement the 2012 Appropriations Act will be
impeached because we won’t allow them to continue violating the law with
impunity.”
The MPs resolved to begin debating reports of the
committees tomorrow adding “We have also written to the MDAs to submit their
status of budget implementation for the first, second and third quota and we
will still go on oversight to ascertain the truth of what they present to us.”