House of Representatives members in Femi Gbajabiamila’s group have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to call Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his group to order.
They also appealed to Buhari to direct Dogara to return to the All Progressives Party’s (APC) fold and be truly elected speaker on the party’s platform.
The 174-member group made the appeal late Wednesday night when 30 of them presented their demands at a meeting with Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
In their presentation, copies of which were made available to State House journalists after the meeting, they alleged that 39 APC members of Dogara’s group had continued to collude with the People’s Democratic Party to “flagrantly” disobey Buhari, the governors and the APC to ridicule the party and the government before Nigerians.
They said the conduct of those 39 APC members “colluding with the PDP” was tantamount to an affront ultimately targeted at polarizing the ruling party to enable many of them to defect to the PDP.
They maintained that it was therefore imperative for the president to take a stand and save the integrity of the APC by calling to order, the 39 members, including Dogara and his deputy to respect, honour and obey the party leaders and their directives.
The group also appealed to the president to direct Dogara to announce the remaining four principal officers positions as directed by the APC.
According to them, the convention has always been that the ruling party nominates principal officers of the House.
“Mr. President, we as loyal party members shall continue to abide by the party constitution, respect and honour our party leaders and their directives. We strongly appeal to you to direct the Speaker to return to our fold and be truly elected Speaker on APC platform. He should be directed to announce the other four party principal officers positions as directed by the party as it has always been the convention”‘, they appealed.
They thanked Buhari for the audience, saying they trusted in his ability to successfully mediate in order to save the the APC from further embarrassment.
Their presentation to Buhari partly read: “On the 9of June, 2015, 174 APC members in the House faithfully and loyally followed the directives of the party to vote for Hon Femi Gbajabiamila and Hon Mongunu as Speaker and Deputy Speaker while 39 other APC members colluded with the opposition party, the PDP, to elect the current Speaker and Deputy Speaker with only 8 votes superiority.
“The party directive was based on the mock primaries conducted for all aspirants to the two positions. Whereas the candidates of the majority (Gbajabiamila and Mongunu) openly congratulated the winners and continued to cooperate with them in the House, the opposition and the 39 APC members continued to hold the APC leadership in contempt. Whereas, we the 174 party faithful and loyalists, had been obedient to the party, what shall be the reward of our loyalty to the party?
“The party has chosen not to punish the 39 APC members including the elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker, but chose to direct, as it is customary and conventional, on how the other four (4) principal officers should be distributed. Alas! The opposition and the 39 members continue to hold the ruling party in contempt by disobeying the party
“Whereas, the beneficiaries of the disobedience are citing Federal Character Principle as the main reason for their disobedience, His Excellency should note that (a) During the 6th Assembly (2007-2011), the following Officers were Elected from the NORTH WEST: (I) The president and Commander in Chief, (ii) Ismaila Kawu and (III)Hon Mutawalle–two occupied 2 out of the 4 principal officers positions of the Minority Party, (iv) Hon Aminu Tambuwal was elected Deputy Chief Whip.
“(b)Also during the 7th Assembly, the following officers in Government were elected from the NORTH WEST: (I) The Vice President, (II) The Speaker, Rt. Hon Aminu Tambuwal, (III) Hon. Ismaila Kawu, Deputy Minority Leader, (IV) Hon. Garba Datti, Deputy Minority Whip. There was never an issue of Federal Character in these instances.
“It should be noted that the Federal Character principle as embedded in Chapter of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) IS NOT JUSTICIABLE AND OF NO LEGAL CONSEQUENCE. Its provision in S.14 of the Constitution is only applicable to appointments in Federal Ministries and Agencies. The House of Representatives is not an Agency of the Federal Government and the Principal officers Positions are elective and not by appointment. If the Federal Character is applicable to the National Assembly, then both the Senate President and the Speaker cannot come from the North, one of them should be advised to step down”.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, Gbajabiamila explained that he led APC caucus members to the meeting to sort out the controversy trailing June 9 emergence of Dogara and his deputy.
He expressed optimism that the APC caucus and the party would come out of the current crisis “bigger, stronger and better for it”.
Asked what Buhari told his group, Gbajabiamila described the president as a party man who, according to him, believes in the party’s supremacy and ideologies.
On why the speaker was absent at the “APC caucus meeting”, he said: “The Speaker probably has other engagements. There are a few members of the caucus that are not here. We could not get everybody here. This is a representation of the caucus. When we’re talking about the caucus, we’re talking about 210 members. You did not find all the members here. This is a representation of the 210 members”.
Responding to a question on why the meeting was attended by only members of his group, Gbajabiamila said: “It’s not about me and we need to get that clear. Yes, they voted for me, but the idea is that they supported the party. That is who we’re and there is nothing more to be said about that. It’s not about any individual.”
Gbajabiamila described the meeting as very successful, saying the party’s will would be done for the way forward.
According to him, the sooner all members of the House realise that they were not elected as independent candidates, the sooner the lingering leadership crisis would be resolved.
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