APC loyalists Turn Against Gbajabiamila, Finally Accept Dogara’s Proposal...
There appears to be a crack in the ranks of the members of the House of Representatives loyal to the governing All Progressives Congress and Femi Gbajabiamila, as
some of the lawmakers have asked the APC leadership to accept the proposal submitted by Speaker Yakubu Dogara regarding the appointment of principal officers.
Mr. Dogara had in a letter to the National Chairman of the APC explained that he could not honour the request of the party to appoint Mr. Gbajabiamila as House leader saying it would be against the spirit of federal character since the South West region where Mr. Gbajabiamila comes from had already produced the Deputy Speaker.
The Speaker said while he was willing to allow the position go to the group loyal to the party, the position of House leader should be zoned to the north-west, and deputy leader to north central. The Dogara faction, in a statement signed by Abdulmumini Jibrin, said on Tuesday that its members had adopted Alhassan Doguwa from north-west as house leader and Pally Iriase, from the South South, as chief whip. Both members belong to the Mr. Gbajabiamila’s group. The move appeared a deliberate effort to break the Gbajabiamila faction.
Earlier, a member from Katsina state, Nasiru Daura, had in a letter to the party’s national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, insisted on party supremacy. But after the Dogara faction offered key members of the Gbajabiamila group positions, two members loyal to the APC, Mukhtari Dandutse from Katsina and Tijjani Jobe from Kano, issued a counter statement on Wednesday distancing themselves and the loyalist group from the position taken by Mr. Daura.
They said what the lawmaker wrote to the national chairman should not be translated to mean the position of the loyalist group, as according to them, no meeting was held to arrive at a decision on the matter. “While we categorically reaffirm our membership of the Loyalist Group and our unflinching allegiance to the supremacy of the party, we wish to make public that the said letter did not emanate from any formal or collective meeting of the group,” they said.
The two lawmakers said the last time the loyalist group met was immediately after the maiden meeting of the National Executive Committee NEC of the APC which held in Abuja July 3, 2015. They said the NEC proposed and members accepted to engage the immediate past Speaker of the House and Governor of Sokoto state, Aminu Tambuwal’s led Reconciliation Committee. “Let us stress, that it was at this NEC meeting that the party recognized Senator Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Hon Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
“Similarly, it was after this NEC meeting that we accepted to cooperate with the Tambuwal’s Reconciliation Committee under the aegis of the All Progressive Party APC Governors Forum. In fact up to this moment, we are confident in the Tambuwal’s Reconciliation Committee as we await its report. While we want to use this medium to dissociate ourselves from the letter by Hon Nasiru Zangon Daura to the leadership of the Party, which to us is his personal views, we remain resolute in the conflict resolution mechanism embarked by the leadership of the party through the APC Governors Forum,” they said.
The members also urged the leadership of the APC to “throw sentiments aside and accept the olive branch extended by the Speaker, so as to achieve amicable resolution of this lingering impasse in the House of Representatives. We want to also use this medium to call on all members of the Loyalist Group nationwide to bury their hatchet, Embrace Peace and Take Nigeria first, above personal interests,” they said.
