Senator Matthew Urhoghide, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), represents Edo South Senatorial District in the National Assembly. In this interview with CHUKWU DAVID, he speaks a recent ugly experience, where thugs attacked him and removed his cap at the Benin airport, for moving a motion that the Senate should invoke Section 143 of the 1999 Constitution against President Muhammadu Buhari, for alleged constitutional breaches. Excerpts…

It has been widely reported that you were attacked by miscreants at the Benin airport on April 28. What really happened?

For the very first time in my life, I have not been so embarrassed, particularly when this one is stemming from my own role as an elected senator from Edo South Senatorial District in the Senate.

I was subjected to molestation and assault by hoodlums that were recruited in my state to waylay me and perpetrate this evil act. If you can recall, on Thursday, April 27, on the floor of the Senate, after the President of the Senate read the letter that was transmitted to the Senate by Mr. President, I stood up to make my contribution based on the fact that I am the Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts. The committee deals with expenditures.

The letter that was transmitted to the Senate by President Buhari has to do with an expenditure that has been incurred. I looked at the implications of the message that was sent to the Senate, and I referred the Senate to all the constitutional provisions concerning the letter that was submitted to it.

I mentioned most responsibly on this floor, without any fear of contradiction that, what the President had in mind was a noble idea because the Tucano Aircraft, for which the money was expended was necessary at this time to meet the security challenges in this country.

If actually you acknowledged that the purpose for which the expenditure was made was necessary, why did you at the same time turn round to criticise it?

I spoke against it and I am still speaking against it because the procedure for the payment was wrong because there was no appropriation that was done by the National Assembly. I also went further to say that this was in violation of Section 80 subsections 1, 2, 3, 4 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). And I said that the 7th Schedule of the con-stitution has equally put a burden on us as elected senators to ensure that we keep our oath of allegiance. Also, our oath of membership of the Senate prescribes that we must do the needful to defend the constitution.

Therefore, I said that a good intention, a noble intention should have been attended by a whole procedure, that we needed to look at the provisions of the constitution as a way of resolving the issue. Going through the 1999 Constitution as amended, the Office of the President as it is, over his functions and any breach or infraction on the part of the President in the discharge of his duty, is only in Section 143.

I stood up on the floor and said that we should invoke Section 143. Section 143 has 11 subsections. This section is not a one line item that prescribed impeachment for Mr. President.

There are procedures and processes to be followed including investigation and the rest. But the misconception that attended it was that I called for the impeachment of Mr. President. I cannot deny the truth or deny what I said.

I am not ignorant of the provisions of this section of the constitution; that signatures and all of that would have to be done, investigations would have to be conducted along the way.

But for somebody to work on it and mobilise thugs in my state to lay in wait for me to humiliate me is unacceptable. In fact, thugs removed my cap and threw it away in the presence of my governor and the state Commissioner of Police. You would have seen that on social media.

After your cap was removed, what did you do or what do you intend to do about it?

I want to say that when this thing happened to me, I decided to move to the point of law because it happened in the presence of my state governor and the police commissioner.

Everything that is said on the floor of the Senate is a matter of privilege and I have immunity. More so, what I said was not a heinous pronouncement. I am even protected by law on what I say on the floor. By Legislative Practices Act, I am protected.

But what I said was misconstrued that led to people having to recruit thugs to confront me and molest me. They assaulted me at the Benin airport.

Have you formally reported the matter to the Senate and what action is being taken on it?

Yes, I have formally tabled the matter before the Senate in plenary because if nothing is done about it, this kind of treatment will go unchecked. Some of my colleagues have also said certain things in this regard. Whatever contributions I have made on the issue is not based on the fact that I am a PDP senator; I was discharging my duty as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.

So, there was nothing that was overtly partisan about my contribution. And the question I want to ask is; if Mr. President was Senator Muhammadu Buhari and was Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, would he have done what I did differently? So, for some persons to decide that, as a serving Senator, the molestation and assault is what will greet me for performing my constitutional duty is most unacceptable.

I brought it to the Senate for them to look at the matter dispassionately. I prayed the Senate that those behind the attack should be fished out and punished to serve as a deterrent to others.

You mentioned earlier that you decided to move to the point of law. Does it mean that you are taking a legal action on the matter, and against who?

Of course, I want this issue to get to court, so that whatever it is that will be meted out as punishment will serve as a deterrent. I also pleaded with the Senate that those involved should be fished out and they must be dealt with. Even based on this, quite ignorantly, the state House of Assembly that has no power to legislate for the Senate went ahead to say that what I did, by asking for the impeachment of the President, that I should go and apologise.

That is very baseless, and that within 72 hours if I don’t apologise, they are going to institute a recall. I also brought it to the knowledge of the Senate. The state assembly has simply acted on ignorance because the basis of it doesn’t even exist. And of course this assembly will take a difference to that resolution.

The state assembly cannot legislate for the Senate. The National Assembly can legislate for the state. My prayer to the Senate is that those that are involved must be fished out by security agencies in the state and must be brought to book, and that this action should be condemned in the strictest terms so that all of them that are concerned will be brought to justice because thuggery should not be mentioned among us.

This country is too decent for certain things and of course the National Assembly, nobody should be able to take us for granted. We are here to serve the people; we are duly elected.

We know that all the segments of our people cannot be happy with what we are doing but a greater majority of the people are happy with us. But those who want to take a difference and decided to do that unconstitutionally must be brought to book and told that they have no option in this matter because their action was borne out of selfish ins actually the position of the Senate on the matter after you made your submissions on the floor?

The Senate condemned it very vehemently. The President of the Senate, His Excellency, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, made it clear that the Legislative House Powers and Privileges Act gave protection and immunity to members of the parliament on the speech made inside the legislative chambers. The Senate also asked the Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs to liaise with the Commissioner of Police in Edo State to ensure that those who attacked me should be brought to book based on the immunity we have.