The House of Representatives went into another rowdy session on Thursday as All Progressives Congress lawmakers and their Peoples Democratic Party colleagues disagreed over the continuous funding of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government.
However, chairs and punches were not thrown on Thursday as was with the case with similar sessions held in the past.
Members remained on their seats, but kept shouting at each other in a manner suggesting that they disagreed on political party lines.
The rowdiness started as the House debated President Muhammadu Buhari’s N465.6billion supplementary budget.
Buhari sent the budget to the the National Assembly on Wednesday and the House slated it for debate on Thursday (yesterday).
The President had voted N413.3bn of the total figure for funding fuel subsidy.
As expected, the subsidy vote became the main issue as the Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, led the debate.
But, an argument soon ensued between APC and PDP lawmakers after the House Minority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, questioned the “huge” subsidy vote at a time the price of crude oil had crashed to about $48 per barrel.
Ogor called on Buhari to scrap the subsidy regime in line with his campaign promises.
“We all know that the N413.3bn is huge and we know that the price of oil has also dropped to $48 per barrel.
“How can we be spending N413.3bn on fuel subsidy? The money should be coming down.
“This is the more reason the President should make good his promise to remove fuel subsidy”, Ogor stated.
But, Gbajabiamila immediately called Ogor to order, asking him to withdraw his “claim” that Buhari promised to remove fuel subsidy.
PDP members interrupted him, shouting that he should “sit down!”
