North-West Backs Gbajabiamila for Speaker, House of Reps

Femi Gbajabiamila

A leader of the All Progressives Congress in the North-West, has said that the zone’s candidate in the race for the Speaker, House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, will step down for the South-West candidate, Femi Gbajabiamila.

The chieftain, who is also a ranking senator-elect, told our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday that the party leaders, in a bid to ensure that the South-West produce the speaker, had agreed to convince Jibrin to run as deputy to Gbajabiamila.

Our correspondent observed that the figure of both zones in the House of Representatives is almost half of the entire population of the lawmakers in the lower chamber.

The senator, who preferred anonymity, said that both Gbajabiamila and Jibrin would address a joint news conference at the Oyo/Osun hall at the Transcorp Hotel in Abuja on Monday (today) by 11.00am.

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He said, “With this development, the APC has effectively resolved the issue of speaker and deputy speaker respectively in the House of Representatives. It is now left for it to resolve the Senate issue.

“The calculation is that if the North-East emerges as Senate President, and the South-West gets the Speaker, no aspirant from the North-East can emerge Deputy Speaker. It will automatically go to the North-West.”

When contacted, Jibrin said, “I am ready to abide by the decision of the party in the interest of Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, cracks seemed to have emerged within the North-East caucus of the party with some of them throwing their weights behind Senator AhmadLawan, while others are pitching their tents with either SenatorsDanjuma Goje and Ali Ndume.

Eleven out of the 13 APC senators elect for the 8th Senate from the North East geo-political zone had 11 days ago, precisely May 1, 2015, vehemently kicked against the endorsement their counterparts from the North West zone.

The eleven senators led by Goje ( Gombe Central) submitted at the media briefing where they disowned Lawan, that though as Senators from the North East, they wanted the APC national leadership to zone the post to the zone, they were completely against the endorsement of Ahmad Lawan by the 20 APC senators-elect from the North-West.

Surprisingly on Friday, one of the arrow heads of the anti-Lawan endorsement, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, issued a statement on behalf of the Yobe lawmakers in the National Assembly, endorsing Lawan’s ambition.