The primary election for the two major aspirants to the office of the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hons. Yakubu Dogara, from
Bauchi State, and Femi Gbajabiamila, from Lagos State, organised by the
ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday, ended in confusion.
Gbajabiamila emerged the party’s consensus candidates in a process that saw Dogara and his group staging a walk out.
Both lawmakers have been strong contenders for the office in an election for speakership scheduled for the inaugural meeting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday and have built their camps of supporters since after the general elections that won them re-election.
Gbajabiamila is believed to have the strong backing of the National
Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos
State, while Dogara banks on the goodwill of APC lawmakers and those of
the opposition PDP.
Consequent upon the close ties between the crisis created by the contest for the House speakership, the APC national leadership summoned a meeting of all members-elect on Thursday at the International Conference Centre, ICC, Abuja to reach a consensus.
But the meeting could not hold as a result of the valedictory session of the last Senate.
It was later learnt that the meeting was shifted to yesterday.
But to the chagrin of the lawmakers, the APC leadership, yesterday, opted for a closed-door session.
The shouts, which later emanated from the venue, was evident that all was not well.
Later, Dogara was seen walking out from the hall defying down pour.
He was followed by Hon. Abdulmumuni Jubril, from Kano State, and about 19 others who felt they were “ambushed”.
Jubril, who spoke with journalists on behalf of Dogara’s camp, said the leadership claimed it was going to organize a primary election for the contenders for the House of Representatives speakership.
He said: “Our party, the APC, called a meeting of all members-elect this morning. From the point of our arrival, we noticed strange happenings. We noticed a lot of campaign going on. We thought that the party invited us to give us the last word of advice before going into the elections.
“The National Chairman made his opening remarks and, thereafter, announced that there was going to be a straw election, which he interpreted as a primary election. He, of course, drew our attention to the presidential primary that was held where President Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the presidential candidate then.
“When we noticed that things weren’t going the way they should, we drew the attention of the National Chairman and we told him four clear things
“Number one: we reminded the National Chairman that the leader of the party and the president of the country, Muhammadu Buhari, has stated very clearly that the members of the National Assembly should be given the liberty to choose their leaders.
“So we asked the National Chairman, it is either he was not in agreement with the statement of the President or he is not accepting the fact that the President is the leader of the party.
“Secondly, we drew the attention of the National Chairman that the two aspirants in the race are all of the APC, why shouldn’t he allow us to go to the floor of the House and determine who leads the 8th Assembly of the House of Representatives. You have no reason to be worried because both aspirants are from the party.
“So, we are surprised they are trying to force us into a process which we stated clearly that there is no provision for
primary for the speakership of the House of Representatives in the Constitution of the APC, there is no provision for primary for speakership in the Constitution of Nigeria.
“We stated this very clearly and told him that the primary he had called, he called it without notice and, to us, we interpreted it as an ambush, an ambush against the candidature of Hon Yakubu Dogara. We were not informed.
“The meeting was not advertised, a lot of members were actually out of Abuja and we requested for just one simple thing. We said if the party will be fair, postpone whatever you want to do, even if you want to try out something, but he was adamant. We said give us notice till tomorrow, the party Chairman said the election must go ahead.
“Finally, our position, we told the National Chairman will not participate in an election that is impromptu. It is obvious that this is pre-determined. The other aspirant mobilised his people very well and we were not informed. We were just given the impression that it was going to be a meeting of blessing for all aspirants and today we are seeing something different.
“We have stated it clearly, we’ll not participate in this election. It undermines the Constitution of the APC. It undermines the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Our position is one and only, the next Speaker of the House of Representatives should be decided on the floor of the House on Tuesday, the 9th of June 2015. That is what the Constitution provides and that is our own position.”
Speaking with journalists before the primary election started, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, promised it would be free and fair.
The election, which started around noon, ended at about 4:30 pm.
The process produced Gbajabiamila, who polled 154 votes to beat Dogara, who got three votes in absentia, to emerge the APC candidate for speakership. The result was announced by the Returning Officer and National Secretary of APC, Mallam Maila Buni.
Monguno, who ran unopposed, secured 153 votes to win the election for deputy speakership.
Remarkably, APC has 213 members in the House of Representatives out of which 183 signed the attendance register at the poll while 26 walked out in protest.
Meanwhile, a similar meeting between the APC leadership and the party’s senators-elect was expected to resume at the venue by 8pm, yesterday, on the Senate presidency. The two contenders for
the Senate presidency are Senators Bukola Saraki and Ahmed Lawan.
SOurce: Vangaurd
Gbajabiamila emerged the party’s consensus candidates in a process that saw Dogara and his group staging a walk out.
Both lawmakers have been strong contenders for the office in an election for speakership scheduled for the inaugural meeting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday and have built their camps of supporters since after the general elections that won them re-election.
Dogara and Gbajabiamila
Consequent upon the close ties between the crisis created by the contest for the House speakership, the APC national leadership summoned a meeting of all members-elect on Thursday at the International Conference Centre, ICC, Abuja to reach a consensus.
But the meeting could not hold as a result of the valedictory session of the last Senate.
It was later learnt that the meeting was shifted to yesterday.
But to the chagrin of the lawmakers, the APC leadership, yesterday, opted for a closed-door session.
The shouts, which later emanated from the venue, was evident that all was not well.
Later, Dogara was seen walking out from the hall defying down pour.
He was followed by Hon. Abdulmumuni Jubril, from Kano State, and about 19 others who felt they were “ambushed”.
Jubril, who spoke with journalists on behalf of Dogara’s camp, said the leadership claimed it was going to organize a primary election for the contenders for the House of Representatives speakership.
He said: “Our party, the APC, called a meeting of all members-elect this morning. From the point of our arrival, we noticed strange happenings. We noticed a lot of campaign going on. We thought that the party invited us to give us the last word of advice before going into the elections.
“The National Chairman made his opening remarks and, thereafter, announced that there was going to be a straw election, which he interpreted as a primary election. He, of course, drew our attention to the presidential primary that was held where President Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the presidential candidate then.
“When we noticed that things weren’t going the way they should, we drew the attention of the National Chairman and we told him four clear things
“Number one: we reminded the National Chairman that the leader of the party and the president of the country, Muhammadu Buhari, has stated very clearly that the members of the National Assembly should be given the liberty to choose their leaders.
“So we asked the National Chairman, it is either he was not in agreement with the statement of the President or he is not accepting the fact that the President is the leader of the party.
“Secondly, we drew the attention of the National Chairman that the two aspirants in the race are all of the APC, why shouldn’t he allow us to go to the floor of the House and determine who leads the 8th Assembly of the House of Representatives. You have no reason to be worried because both aspirants are from the party.
“So, we are surprised they are trying to force us into a process which we stated clearly that there is no provision for
primary for the speakership of the House of Representatives in the Constitution of the APC, there is no provision for primary for speakership in the Constitution of Nigeria.
“We stated this very clearly and told him that the primary he had called, he called it without notice and, to us, we interpreted it as an ambush, an ambush against the candidature of Hon Yakubu Dogara. We were not informed.
“The meeting was not advertised, a lot of members were actually out of Abuja and we requested for just one simple thing. We said if the party will be fair, postpone whatever you want to do, even if you want to try out something, but he was adamant. We said give us notice till tomorrow, the party Chairman said the election must go ahead.
“Finally, our position, we told the National Chairman will not participate in an election that is impromptu. It is obvious that this is pre-determined. The other aspirant mobilised his people very well and we were not informed. We were just given the impression that it was going to be a meeting of blessing for all aspirants and today we are seeing something different.
“We have stated it clearly, we’ll not participate in this election. It undermines the Constitution of the APC. It undermines the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Our position is one and only, the next Speaker of the House of Representatives should be decided on the floor of the House on Tuesday, the 9th of June 2015. That is what the Constitution provides and that is our own position.”
Speaking with journalists before the primary election started, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, promised it would be free and fair.
The election, which started around noon, ended at about 4:30 pm.
The process produced Gbajabiamila, who polled 154 votes to beat Dogara, who got three votes in absentia, to emerge the APC candidate for speakership. The result was announced by the Returning Officer and National Secretary of APC, Mallam Maila Buni.
Monguno, who ran unopposed, secured 153 votes to win the election for deputy speakership.
Remarkably, APC has 213 members in the House of Representatives out of which 183 signed the attendance register at the poll while 26 walked out in protest.
Meanwhile, a similar meeting between the APC leadership and the party’s senators-elect was expected to resume at the venue by 8pm, yesterday, on the Senate presidency. The two contenders for
the Senate presidency are Senators Bukola Saraki and Ahmed Lawan.
SOurce: Vangaurd
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