Abuja — The promise of sundry political carrots including automatic tickets in the 2011 parliamentary elections has been fingered as the real reason behind the rejection of last Wednesday's motion seeking to compel President Umaru Musa Yar Adua to transmit a vacation letter to the National Assembly to enable Vice President Goodluck Jonathan assume the position of Acting President in line with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution.

Apart from the automatic tickets, pro-establishment lawmakers were said to have been promised some pecuniary favours if they played the right cards and ensured that the motion was killed on the floor of the House.

Although the said motion reportedly had the backing of about 200 lawmakers, investigations have revealed that it suffered a fatal defeat on the floor of the House of Representatives when some lawmakers learnt that the leadership of the House had brokered a deal with President Yar Adua's "kitchen cabinet" and the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to enlist the support of lawmakers to shoot down any of such motions in exchange for automatic tickets in the forthcoming parliamentary polls.

The revelation came just as the leadership of the House appears to have begun to execute a sinister plot against those who floated the controversial motion. Chairman, House Committee on Donor Funds and Civil Society, Honourable Nnenna Ukeje was at the weekend dropped from the six-member delegation appointed by the House of Representatives to pay President Yar Adua a solidarity visit in Saudi Arabia.

Ukeje, a vocal lawmaker was said to have signed the initial letter drafted by about 200 lawmakers asking President Yar Adua to transmit power to the Vice President. This was after she was chosen to represent the South east geo-political zone and the female folk on the trip. She also became a visible supporter of the motion that followed last week.

The female lawmaker, our source said, was simply prevented from travelling alongside her colleagues because of the fear that she was rather too independent minded and may "spill the beans" on her return given her current stand on the issue. THISDAY also gathered that a number of other lawmakers who participated actively in support of the motion have been pencilled down for various sanctions.

THISDAY's visit to the office of Honourable Ukeje confirmed that she did not make the trip. Her secretary said she was in town but not in the office. Calls put across to her cell phone did not yield positive results, but sources close to her said she planned to address the media today (Tuesday)on her plight.

Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Eseme Eyiboh denied knowledge of the alleged plot to punish "stubborn lawmakers". He also said he was neither aware that Honourable Nnenna Ukeje was dropped from the delegation nor the reason behind the action.

However, another lawmaker has described the resolution of the House on the power vacuum controversy as unfortunate and an embarrassment to the parliament. The lawmaker who spoke on the condition of anonymity asked the House to retrace its steps before it loses its rightful place in the current democratic setting.

He disclosed that while the pro-Section 145 lawmakers were planning to bring up the debate on Yar Adua, the leadership of the House was also plotting to truncate it through the enlistment of lawmakers who undertook to kill the motion in exchange for political carrots.

"It is just like what happened during the Third Term saga, many of these people kicking against compliance with Section 145 of the Constitution were the same persons who supported the Third Term because they were given money and promised automatic tickets.

The leadership of this House can be very vindictive so don't be surprised that, as we hear, some of these members may even lose their positions in their various committees apart from the fact that the so called automatic tickets will elude them if it ever comes," he told THISDAY in confidence.

Under the terms of the current deal, THISDAY checks revealed, the leadership of the House was required to take special cognisance of lawmakers that supported the motion and to transmit such names to the party secretariat for possible disciplinary actions that may eventually translate to denial of tickets in the next elections.

The motion was brought to the House after some two hundred lawmakers met to review the state of the nation and resolved that the House needed to deliberate on President Yar Adua's prolonged absence from the country. The motion sponsored by Honourable Sani Abdu (ANPP Bauchi) was geared towards enlisting the support of the House to compel President Yar Adua to send a letter notifying the National Assembly of his absence from his duty post and should have constitutionally transmitted presidential powers to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan who will then become Acting President pending the recovery from ill health and return of Mr President to the country.

However, the motion ran into a lot of political intrigues and amidst much rowdiness, Speaker Dimeji Bankole ruled in favour of the group opposed to it and hurriedly adjourned plenary.

Meanwhile there were speculations yesterday that the leadership of the House may explore avenues to revisit the said motion this week to save it from what has become a public embarrassment.

Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole has reportedly been meeting with his team on how to review their stand in view of the emerging consensus in the Senate, the Governors Forum and amongst elder statesmen that the patriotic way out of the raging controversy would be for President Yar Adua to comply with section 145 of the 1999 Constitution.