Gbajabiamila to Oyegun: Party must exert supremacy on Dogara, others

The group, in a letter to the national chairman, dated July 18, said the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara had defied the party on several occasions before his election as speaker, and was poised to do same in the emergence of principal officers in the House.
The “APC Loyalists” as they call themselves said in the letter copied to President Muhammadu Buhari, chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum Rochas Okorocha and the forum’s mediator, former Speaker and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waizri Tambuwal that Dogara’s “injustice” in his proposed sharing of the position must not be allowed to stand.
The Speaker has in a letter to the party’s national chairman, dated July 16, said going ahead with the party’s nominees for the four offices amounts to breach of both the constitution of Nigeria and the standing House Rules.
Dogara said to respect the provision of federal character as enshrined in the constitution, South-west and North-east must not produce another principal officers, so as to allow remaining zones have one position in the House’s hierarchy.
He therefore proposed to the party leader  a new sharing formula that zones the House leader position to North-west, deputy House leader to North-central, South-south, Chief whip position, while South-east will have deputy chief whip.
Initially, APC had in a letter to the Speaker in June, nominated Femi Gbajabiamila as the House leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa as his deputy, Mohammed Tahir Monguno as Chief whip, and Paly Iriase as his deputy, which the Speaker refused to read before the House.
That the “Loyalists Group” said in a letter signed by Nasiru Sani Zangon-Daura (Katsina) on behalf of the group and addressed to the party chairman, that Dogara’s letter “was fraught with several fundamental flaws in his analysis and interpretation of the Constitution and House rules.”
The letter reads in part “We stand on our earlier position that whilst we accept and agree with the principle of Federal Character, the Constitutional provisions in that regard are strictly in reference to the appointment to the Federal Executive and its agencies.
“Whilst we maintain that our party’s mantra of ‘Change’ for the growth and development of our dear nation requires that merit should not be sacrificed on the altar of zoning, we have painstakingly ensured that in the selection of our leaders in the House, all zones are represented, except the South East.”
The group explained that South-east zone is excluded by the House Rules from holding any principal position as the only two members from the zones lack “cognate legislative experience” as stipulated by the House Standing Rules.
On the issue of “morality, which Dogara mantioned in his letter, said the Gbajabiamila group, Dogara had before the election rejected the planned zoning arrangement by the party, which compelled it to conduct a straw primary election.
“We find it highly immoral, disingenuous, insincere and downright hypocritical, that someone who rejected and was anti-zoning will now be the person waiving the zoning card when it serves his purpose.
“Mr. Chairman, history beckons and posterity will always judge our conduct and contributions to the development of our democracy. A Political Party is an institution and its supremacy is universal and not a Nigerian coinage.
“It is on record that the Speaker defied the Party going into the elections and he is about to repeat such defiance.
“The party must assert its authority over all its members the Speaker inclusive as none of us came to the House as independent candidates and we subscribed expressly and impliedly to the Party’s supremacy in political activities,” the group said.