Aggrieved lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who did not get tickets to contest the 2019 polls were planning to protest against the president.
Yakubu Dogara
Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, has pleaded with lawmakers in the lower legislative chamber not to embarrass President Muhammadu Buhari by staging a protest during the budget presentation.
TheCable learnt that aggrieved lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who did not get tickets to contest the 2019 polls were planning to protest against the president.
Some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers also plotted to partake in the protest, a legislative source said.
But the source said during a closed-door session on Thursday, Dogara pleaded with the aggrieved lawmakers in the meeting which lasted about 12 minutes not to protest against Buhari as he is presenting the 2019 budget proposal.
Another source said after the plea, some of the aggrieved lawmakers submitted their placards to Kawu Sumaila, senior special assistant to the president on national assembly matters (house of representatives).
“They have started submitting their placards to Kawu,” the source said.
“They are aggrieved, you know most of them did not get their tickets and that is why they want to protest. That is the reason for the delay, the joint session was supposed to start at 12am.”
Last week, some lawmakers in the lower legislative chamber threatened to boycott the budget presentation.