Members of the All Progressives
Congress in the House of Representatives who are loyal to the Speaker, Yakubu
Dogara, have described as a “very dangerous trend” their being referred to as
“new PDP” allegedly by their counterparts who belong to Femi Gbajabiamila camp.
The Dogara faction has also moved
to break the faction of Mr. Gbajabiamila, by nominating one his loyalists,
Alhassan Doguwa, for the position of majority leader.
APC is favouring the former
minority leader, Mr. Gbajabiamila, to clinch the position.
Struggle over leadership
positions has, since the National Assembly was inaugurated on June 9, polarised
the APC members in the House into two factions led by Messrs Dogara and Gbajabiamila.
Mr. Gbajabiamila was anointed by
the party leadership to emerge speaker but lost following Mr. Dogara’s
defiance.
Shortly after the Gbajabiamila
group announced it was dragging Mr Dogara; deputy speaker, Yusuf Lasun; and the
clerk of the House of Representatives to court over the House’s principal
positions, the opposing Dogara group issued a statement Tuesday night.
In the statement signed by
Abdulmumin Jubrin, Kano State, the Dogara group urged the party leadership to
ensure the tag of “new PDP” does not continue, stressing their sacrifice for
the APC.
“It is important for Mr.
President and the party to note that while people like Gbajabiamila were busy
having fun, some of us including governors and thousands of our supporters left
the PDP at great personal risk to join APC,” the statement said.
“Today, they still disdainfully
call us nPDP. This is a very dangerous trend that must not be allowed to
continue. We therefore urge the party to call on Gbajabiamila to stop spreading
hatred within the party.”
Although the group expressed
“undiluted support” for the party leadership, they said the proposal of Mr.
Dogara in respect of leadership of positions of House should be respected.
“We wish to state that we
unequivocally support “The Dogara Formula” in the distribution of the principal
officers’ positions in the House of Representatives as proposed by the
Honourable Speaker Yakubu Dogara,” the statement said.
“In his proposal, the speaker
rightly allocated the House majority leader to the North West, deputy house
leader to the North Central, the chief whip to the South-South and the deputy
chief whip to the South East. Since the north east and south west already has
the speaker and deputy, they were excluded.
“This proposal is in tandem with
the Constitution of The Federal Republic of Nigeria, the spirit of federal
character and the need for equity, fairness and justice.
“For the benefit of
enlightenment, it is important to state that in terms of the leadership status
of these vacant positions, the house leader is the most senior, followed by the
chief whip. In the spirit of reconciliation and unity, Speaker Dogara has
graciously conceded the positions of House Leader and Chief Whip to the Femi
Gbajabiamila group.”
The Dogara loyalists adopted Mr.
Doguwa and other members for the four principal positions.
“Consequently, we the
Consolidation Group have decided to adopt Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa from the
North West as house leader, Hon. Buba Jibrin from the North Central as deputy
house leader, Hon. Pally Iriase from the South South as the chief whip and Hon
Chika Okafor from the South East as the deputy chief whip. We therefore call on
our supporters to intensify lobbying at the zonal caucuses to ensure that these
members emerge to assume the positions.
“Kindly note that Hon Alhassan
Doguwa is the head of the Gbajabiamila Group while Hon Pally Iriase was in the
speakership race but stepped down for Gbajabiamila and assumed a very prominent
role in the Gbajabiamila group.
“Similarly, we call on the party
to disregard the letter purportedly written by the Gbajabiamila group, which we
know contemptuously emanated from the duo of Gbajabiamila and Hon. Falake
without due consultation with the APC caucus in the House, many of whom are in
full support of Dogara, his peace efforts and proposal for distribution of the
remaining principal officers.”
PREMIUM TIMES understands that
the core loyalists of Mr. Gbajabiamila believe the insistence of Mr. Dogara on
not allowing a majority leader from the South West where the Deputy Speaker,
Lasun Yusuf, also hails from is “targeted at ensuring anybody but Gbajabiamila
becomes the majority leader”.
“The (majority) leader can be
anybody from any zone,” a source close to Mr. Gbajabiamila said. “But the
person must not be Gbajabiamila. That’s the unspoken position of Dogara.”
However, the Dogara group added
that, ” the Speaker still has over 200 positions to allocate and Gbajabiamila
will have the opportunity to serve.”
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