Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Idris Wase says there was no time he ruled to stop Nigerians living in the diaspora not to submit a petition on issues affecting them back home.
Wase made the denial in a statement on Monday, saying Nigerians in the Diaspora are eligible to file petitions, but added that he was only concerned about the legal identity of the Mutual Union of the Tiv in America.
The deputy speaker rejected a petition from the union when he presided over the plenary session last Thursday.
Mark Terseer Gbillah from Benue, presented the petition in which it said the federal government is not resettling the Tiv people displaced as a result of the farmers-herders crises.
Before ruling against it, Wase tried to confirm if the group was registered with the Corporate Affairs of Commission (CAC), saying: “I am not convinced that somebody from America can come here and then be delaying issues in Nigeria.”
The deputy speaker through his press secretary Umar Puma said his contention was on the “legality of the petitioners and not on whether Nigerians in the diaspora have a right to petition the house or not.”
