The Gbajabiamila group have rejected the offer made by the Dogara’s group that they may nominate a candidate for the position of House Leader so long as the nominee is not from the south west and north east geo-political zones which already produced the deputy speaker and speaker respectively.
The group further said that no counter-offer has been made to them after the first meeting with the Tambuwal peace committee. With this development therefore, their position has effectively rules out Rep Femi Gbajabiamila (APC Lagos) who was nominated by the party as House Leader.
It will be noted that the intervention by the Governor of Sokoto State led committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), members of the House of Representatives loyal to Speaker Yakubu Dogara have agreed to concede the position of House Leader to the Gbajabiamila’s group.
According to the group “We the 174 APC loyalists of the House are aware that there was a private discussion between Gov. Aminu Tambuwal and President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday evening at the State House. We are also aware that Gov. Tambuwal briefed the press that there would be a meeting between him and Speaker Dogara’s group same day.
“We have clearly stated that in line with party supremacy resolution reached at the last APC NEC meeting, the position of the party on Femi Gbajabiamila as the House Leader is none negotiable.
“We are also surprised that a group led by Speaker Dogara who is a lawyer, is talking about a court action presumably instigated by him based on federal character, when a fresh law school graduate knows that the issue of federal character as enshrined in S.14 of the constitution is non-justifiable and of no legal consequence.
“In playing his mediatory role, the former House Speaker, Gov. Tambuwal agreed to take our position to Dogara group for consideration and convene a joint meeting of both groups, which is yet to be convened as at Wednesday evening. So any purported decision reeled out to the public in the name of the National Assembly peace pact before such joint meeting is lopsided and not acceptable to the APC loyalists”.
The Gbajabiamila’s group however, said as a group that wants peace and quick solution to the logjam in the House, they would equally subscribe to an election among entire members of the APC House Caucus where all members irrespective of zones would exercise their right to elect their principal officers.
House leadership should be a party affairs, it is agreeable for the APC caucus to vote their leaders as Dogara has not authority to determine who becomes house majority leader. This is simply because the majority leader is a party affair just like minority leader.
We don’t want tinubu to rule. APC = Jagaban