Abuja — The House of Representatives yesterday said it is fully prepared to jointly host President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and receive the 2010 Appropriation Bill with their Senate counterpart in the House chambers in line with tradition and directive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

It also said it was only waiting for the Senate to obey the directive from the party, which it claims is supreme.

Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, who disclosed this yesterday while responding to questions from correspondents, denied that the House was disrespectful of the Senate as alleged in news reports credited to the Senate President, Senator David Mark, at the weekend.

He said the House was not ready to join issues with the Senate over the "needless controversy."

"I'm not joining issues with the distinguished Senator, the President of the Senate, on the issue of seniority because that is the origin of the accusation of disrespect. It could be answered from Section 4 of the Constitution.

"Section 4 (1) states that the legislative power of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in a National Assembly for the Federation which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.

"Section 53 (2) says that at any joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives, the President of the Senate shall preside and in his absence the Speaker, and in the absence of the persons mentioned above it shall be the Deputy Senate President, and in his absence the Deputy Speaker.

"Nobody is contesting that section of the constitution. But the issue is: what constitutes a joint sitting? It is found in Section 64. It says the quorum of both the Senate and the House of Representatives shall be one third of all the members of both Houses

"Could you now say that a joint sitting of constitution review made up of 44 members from Senate and 44 members from the House of Representatives could form one third of the total number of both the Senate and House of Representatives should be construed to mean a joint sitting? "

The House spokesman maintained that the party's position on the budget imbroglio is supreme and there was no reason why the Senate should still insist on the issue of seniority.

"The party is supreme, Peoples Democratic Party in our own case contested election, presented a candidate, we won the election, we are PDP members. The party in its wisdom has intervened. We have shown loyalty and respect to the party. When the party called, we went there. The leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives met the party and the party took a decision.

"So, either the Senate or the House of Representatives that disobeys the party, the issue will be the chamber versus the party. In this case, I want to believe the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives will abide by the decision of the party".