‘We were begged by Dogara not to protest against Buhari’

Oghene Egho, representative of Amuwo Odofin federal constituency in the house of representatives, on Tuesday said Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house, made the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers shelve a planned protest against President Muhammadu Buhari.

TheCable had reported that the opposition legislators attempted to hold an anti-Buhari protest during the time that the president presented the 2018 budget before a joint session of the national assembly.

Speaking after the presentation, Egho said the PDP lawmakers were aggrieved because of the slow implementation of 2017 budget.

“It’s true that we wanted to protest because we felt that 2017 budget was not well implemented,” he said.

“2017 was not well implemented, now you bring 2017. We thought about protesting against the president but the speaker appealed to us that in the interest of the country.”

Egho said the move made by the opposition lawmakers show they have the interest of Nigerians at heart.

“That shows you PDP, we are people who are willing to work for the betterment of the country,” he said.

“It was purely on principle that we fight for implementation. The generality of the people suffer it, that was the reason. But we thank God we dropped the idea and today the budget has been laid.”

He added that most of the PDP lawmakers do not have confidence in the 2018 budget proposal.

“The previous budgets had been abandoned, they have not been well executed. Most of us don’t have confidence in this budget,” he said.

“Nigerians have to wait until after the execution before we can commend the budget.”