Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO) said that lawmakers are covered by legislative immunity, as such they can’t be arrested for saying anything within the floor of the National Assembly.

The organisation also claimed that President Muhammdu Buhari is planning to arrest lawmakers that carried out the act when the president was presenting the 2019 budget before them.

“They can’t arrest any parliamentarian for booing the president on what he thinks is correct. That the president misrepresented what has happened in his or her constituency. They should be careful with what they are trying to do, because what they are planning to do, whether the president knows or he doesn’t know, will affect the 2019 general elections.

Addressing newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, one of the spokespersons of PPCO, Buba Galadima, said they had it on good authority that the presidency was taking the names of those who supposedly booed the president in order to send either the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the police after them.

Independent Newpapers quoted Galadima as sying: “We learnt under an impeccable authority that some of his close aides are meeting and taking names of those who supposedly booed the president. Whether to frame them, either with the EFCC or ask the police to invite them, I don’t know.

“They can’t arrest any parliamentarian for booing the president on what he thinks is correct. That the president misrepresented what has happened in his or her constituency. They should be careful with what they are trying to do, because what they are planning to do, whether the president knows or he doesn’t know, will affect the 2019 general elections.

“Therefore, it is not out of place for members of the National Assembly and for all of you to know that there is a parliamentary immunity.

“That if members are within that hallow chamber, they can say anything and it will not offend any law. In fact, they cannot even be tried in the court of law for what they say in the National Assembly chambers.

“He has no authority whatsoever, or his agents – whether EFCC, ICPC, police, and DSS – to accost any parliamentarian for having booed the president for what he read out on the floor of the National Assembly.”

Reacting to the acclaimed achievements of President Buhari, in his budget presentation, Galadima, who is still the Chairman of Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC), said 90 percent of what the president rolled out as his achievements were false.

“What the president read out as achievement was absolute trash, absolute falsehood – they were absolute misrepresentation of facts. By now, we must have seen that 90% of what he called achievements were really not true.

“It is unfortunate that the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a person that cannot check his facts. He has no way of finding out what is the truth.

“Whatever is given to him by his subordinates, the president takes it hook, line, and sinker and rolls them out to the public. This calls his integrity to question,” he said.

Also reacting to the reports that Farmers Association of Nigeria and Fertiliser Association have contributed money to the campaign purse of President Buhari, Galadima called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify the president.

He added that the figure of farmers released was not true, that the farmers were not up to three million.

Recall that it was reported that farmers donated N1.2 billion, while the fertiliser association donated N1.7 billion.

Galadima said: “We also read in the national dailies that the Farmers’ Association of Nigeria had contributed 100 hundred thousand naira each to the re-election of Mr. President.

“This is unlawful, cannot be justified in any court of law. If it is true, this is against the Electoral Act, because in the Electoral Act, whoever does business with government cannot contribute to the election of that government. It is against the law.

“Those who made that contribution and those who received the contribution should be called to book and be arraigned before the appropriate court of law.

“I am a farmer, one of the largest farmers in Nigeria. Around me are also farmers with large investment. We have never sat down as members of Farmers Association of Nigeria and taken a decision that we are supporting President Muhammadu Buhari candidature for a second term in office.

“Therefore, I want to assume that whatever they said about this is a lie. But if is not a lie, then it is against the Electoral Act. This now calls for the disqualification of President Muhammadu Buhari as a candidate for the 2019 presidential election.”

In the meantime, another spokesperson of the PDP Campaign Organisation, Prince Kassim Afegbua, in a statement, said the All Progressives Congress (APC) was hawking the 2019 presidency.

He said, “In its desperation to hang on to power despite its abysmal failure so far, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the presidency have resorted to trading with the lure of 2023 presidency, promising both the South-East and South-West respectively of the 2023 presidency in exchange for votes.

“Giving out two promises has exposed the insincerity and dubious intention of the Buhari-led Federal Government with the people of the South-East and South-West geopolitical zones with empty promises of bequeathing power to the two zones at the same time in 2023. This is why Nigerians cannot take the APC and the Buhari presidency serious any longer, as we prepare for the 2019 election.”

Afegbua said on behalf of President Buhari in Owerri, last week, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, told the APC campaign that the president would hand over the reins of power to a South-Easterner, while calling on the people to support Mr. President.

“Meanwhile, the vice president also told leaders of the South-West to support the re-election of President Buhari so as to get the presidency in 2023.

“Two principal officers of the same government cannot be fooling Nigerians with vainglorious promises all in the name of re-election.

“Such discordant tunes by the first and second citizens of our dear country have exposed lack of synergy, and display of double standard and double-speak by chieftains of a government that have continued to display wanton desperation to hold on to power at all cost in the face of monumental failure.

“How can the president be promising South-Easterners the presidency when his vice president is also promising the South-Westerners same position in 2023, all in the name of 2019 re-election? This is a clear show of deceit, desperation, crass insincerity and hypocrisy of the highest order.”