10th Assembly: G7, opposition members-elect to unveil consensus candidates

The Greater Minority Group of the 10th Assembly comprising members-elect from opposition parties on Saturday met with members of the G7 group to reach a consensus deal on the leadership positions of the 10th House of Representatives.

Greater Minority is made up of 182 members-elect across minority parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Labour Party (LP); New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP); Africa Democratic Congress (ADC); Young People’s Party (YPP); All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The G7 is a group of aggrieved Speakership aspirants who have rejected the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s anointed candidates for Speaker and deputy speaker.

They are the Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase; Chairman of the House Committee on Navy, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi; Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Muktar Aliyu Betara; Sada Soli; Miriam Onuoha and Sani Jaji.

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At the end of the meeting which was held at Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja on Saturday, the incoming lawmakers agreed on having consensus candidates for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions.

They, however, decided to wait for a later date to unveil the preferred candidates.

Speaking on the development, a member of the G7, Gagdi, said the members-elect settled for candidates that will be acceptable to the majority of them.

“The G7 met with Greater Minority and agreed on consensus candidates for Speaker and Deputy Speaker but we will not mention the names yet. We reached an agreement based on the best choice of people that will be acceptable to the majority of all parties involved.

“We have formed this alliance to resist all attempts by external forces to impose leadership on the 10th House of Representatives. Be rest assured that the next leadership of the House will emerge from us,” he said.

Meanwhile, Members-elect from minority parties in the next 10th House of Representatives, under the auspices of the “Greater Majority,” said they have not endorsed any candidate for the position of Speaker of the House.

Recall that they were reports that the members of the minority caucus at a stakeholders’ meeting with outgoing Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, indicated support for the APC’s anointed candidate, Tajudeen Abass.

But in a statement Saturday by its secretary, Ali Isa, the group denied backing Abass as reported, saying their meeting was like normal consultations which they have been having with other aspirants.

“Our attention has been drawn to a fictitious report circulating in both conventional and unconventional media circles that the minority caucuses have endorsed a candidate for the Office of Speaker House of Representatives.

“We hereby use this opportunity to categorically state that at no time did the minority caucuses endorse anyone, and we wish to add that as part of our ongoing consultations with all relevant stakeholders, which also includes receiving presentations from all the aspirants for Speakership, the group merely met with Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the outgoing Speaker of the House of Reps, and Hon. Tajudeen Abbas who also engaged our Committee and made his own presentation to solicit the support of members of our caucuses to work with him just like the other aspirants did. At no time did we make any announcement endorsing anyone for any office, and neither did we promise such endorsement to any aspirant or their proxies”, the statement said.