House C’ttee list: We’re still in shock - Gbajabiamila loyalists

Dogara was fair, House spokesman insists

By Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—APPARENTLY shocked by the list of committees announced by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, last Thursday,  members, who supported the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for  speakership, Femi Gbajabiamila have expressed disappointment over what they described as a lopsided  appointments of committee chairmen by the House leadership.

The Speaker, Dogara had  announced chairmen and deputy chairmen for the 96 standing committees of the House, with members considered to be his loyalists getting some of the ‘juicy’ committees.

But  the new spokesman of the House, Abdulrazak Namdas  in a statement  last Friday, debunked the claims that Dogara’s men got more lucrative committees.

According to some members of the Loyalists Group, who spoke to Vanguard, it was surprising that out of the 96 committees, only nine of them were appointed as chairmen.

House C’ttee list: We’re still in shock - Gbajabiamila loyalists

Tribunal upholds Gbajabiamila’s victory

The Lagos State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal on Friday upheld the declaration of Femi Gbajabiamila as the winner of the March 28, 2015 House of Representatives election in the Surulere Federal Constituency 1.

Femi Gbajabiamila

The Justice C.U Anwuka-led three-man tribunal rejected the petition challenging the victory of Gbajabiamila and his party, the All Progressives Congress, in the said election.

Gbajabiamila, who is now the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, had been declared winner of the said election by the Independent National Electoral Commission after polling 21, 715 votes.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Tony Ashikodi, who polled 14, 550 votes to emerge the first runner-up, had however headed for the tribunal to challenge Gbajabiamila’s victory.

Ashikodi had alleged irregularities and a breach of the guidelines set out by the INEC for the conduct of the election.

He claimed that Gbajabiamila and his party did not score the highest number of valid votes in the election and should not have been declared winner by INEC.

He also claimed that the number of votes cast exceeded the number of registered voters.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Kalu Onuah, urged the court to declare the election null and void in the circumstance as stipulated by Section 53(2) Electoral Act, 2010.

Tribunal upholds Gbajabiamila’s victory

PDP shock over Buhari"s support for Gbajabiamila

The Peoples Democratic Party caucus at the House of Representatives said on Sunday that its members were in shock to hear that President Muhammadu Buhari actually supported the ambition of Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila to be the Majority Leader of the 8th Assembly.

Femi Gbajabiamila

Gbajabiamila, an All Progressives Congress lawmaker from Lagos State, initially wanted to be the Speaker but he lost the election to an APC member from Bauchi State, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.

Following a 49-day leadership tussle, Gbajabiamila eventually emerged on Tuesday last week as the Majority Leader of the House.

However, the PDP lawmakers stated on Sunday that the latest revelation that the President was backing Gbajabiamila to be the Majority Leader went contrary to his initial public declaration that he would remain neutral in the choices of the principal officers of the National Assembly.

At an interactive session with journalists in Abuja last Friday, Gbajabiamila had disclosed how he wanted to opt out of the race for principal officers but was prevented by the President.

The Lagos lawmaker had said, “But, on principle, the President did not accept it (that he should give up fighting); my party did not accept it and I thank God for the kind of confidence they have in me to be able to deliver the goods for the party.

“Who am I to say no? It was on principle that we stayed on course.”

The Minority Whip of the House, Mr. Yakubu Barde, who spoke on behalf of the caucus, noted that it would appear that the President did not tell Nigerians the truth when he earlier said that he was not interested in whoever emerged as principal officers in the legislature.

He added that the majority leader’s revelation had also thrown up the question as to who between Buhari and Gbajabiamila had lied to Nigerians.

The caucus whip stated, “However, with the latest revelation by Gbajabiamila, we are not sure who is telling the truth between the two men.

“It is either one of them lied to Nigerians or both men jointly and separately lied.

“If as Gbajabiamila claimed, Buhari did influence his emergence as House leader, it will rather be unfortunate that the President is not a man of his words and Nigerians should now begin to scrutinise every word that emanates from him.

“We are alarmed by this development because it portends grave danger for our democracy and the independence of the legislature.

“The President must resist the temptation to use his power and influence to compromise the institution of the National Assembly by directly involving himself in the process of emergence of the principal officers of the House.”

The PDP caucus said the development also suggested that the President belonged to “a few people” as against his inauguration declaration of “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.”

PDP shock over Buhari"s support for Gbajabiamila

Breaking: Femi Gbajabiamila finally emerges as Majority Leader

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News

It seems the crisis rocking the Federal House of Representative may have finally come to an end as Femi Gbajabiamila has been named the majority leader.

There has been leadership tussles between the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, his loyalists, and Gbajabiamila and those loyal to the All Progressives Congress (APC)

The refusal by Dogara to announce Gbajabiamila has a majority leader has torn the party into pieces until on Tuesday when the President Muhammadu Buhari met with the aggrieved reps in Abuja.

 

Mr. Gbajabiamila was a former minority leader who was pushed to speakership but lost to Dogara.

 

In the same vein, Buba Jibrin was named the deputy leader, Ado Doguwa as chief whip while Pally Iraise was named deputy whip.

Chukwuma Onyema emerged as deputy Minority Whip; Yakubu Umar as the Minority Whip while Leo Ogor clicked the Minority Leader position.

What this means is that, The leadership of the APC has succeeded in resolving the problem with started since June 9.

Breaking: Femi Gbajabiamila finally emerges as Majority Leader

Politicians switch sides, ex-Gbajabiamila loyalists accept Dogara"s offer

Some ex-loyalists of former Minority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila and members of the All Progressives Congress Loyalists Group, on Saturday declared support for the House of Representatives Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.

Yakubu Dogara

The lawmakers claimed that they had realised it was better to place the interest of the country ahead of all other considerations to accept the positions of the principal officers of the House as proposed by Dogara.

Gbajabiamila who is believed to have the backing of the Loyalists Group, had for long insisted that the office of Majority Leader must be zoned to the South-West and be held by him.

Members of the group who attended a joint news briefing in Abuja with the Speaker’s group were Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa (Kano State); Mr. Mohammed Monguno (Borno State); and Mr. Pally Iriase (Edo State).

The APC leadership, in a June 23 letter to Dogara, had recommended to zone the majority leader to the South-West; deputy leader to North-West; chief whip to North-East and the deputy whip to South-South.

However, the Speaker opposed it, citing alleged violation of federal character principle, and instead, proposed to zone the majority leader to the North-West.

Dogara also zoned the deputy leader to the North-Central; chief whip to the South-South; and deputy whip to the South-East.

By the Speaker’s proposal, Ado-Doguwa will now become the majority leader, while a lawmaker from Kogi State, Mr. Buba Jibrin, will become the deputy leader.

Mr. Pally Iriase from Edo State, will become the chief whip, while the position of deputy whip which goes to the South-East will be occupied by Mr. Chike Okafor.

Ado-Doguwa, Monguno and Iriase were all Gbajabiamila’s men, but who had made U-turn to back Dogara.

They now subscribe to a new tune and group, “Equity Forum.”

Dogara is set to name the principal officers on Tuesday when the House would have reconvened from its current four-week break.

Speaking on behalf of the loyalists group, Iriase claimed that their change of mind was informed by the realisation that the members had to comply with Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution, which dealt with federal character.

Iriase added, “Let Nigerians know that the crisis in the House has been resolved.

“Based on the letter the speaker wrote to the APC, under Section 13 of the constitution, he is to ensure compliance with Section 14 (3) of the constitution.

“We have, therefore, accepted the Speaker’s proposal on the equitable distribution of the principal positions.

“The majority of APC members in the loyalists group have accepted these positions for the sake of promoting equity.”

According to Iriase, the loyalists group won a major victory over Dogara for being able to produce the majority leader, deputy leader and chief whip.

Ado-Doguwa also spoke at the session, saying he backed the position of the group as explained by Iriase.

He said he accepted to be the House leader because he realised the group must give up fighting for the sake of rescuing the country’s democracy from further crises.

“We reached a point that we just agreed that the interest of the whole nation supersedes any other.

“Where we are now is okay for us as a group and we must sheathe our swords and move on,” he added.

On his part, Monguno looked weighed down when he said that by agreeing to team up with the Speaker, he knew he had become one of the biggest losers.

Monguno had wanted to be the Seaker, but stepped down for Gbajabiamila. He also contested the post of deputy leader and lost to the current occupant, Mr. Yusuf Lasun.

The APC later proposed him to be the chief whip but he also agreed to swap the position with Iriase, who was initially nominated as deputy whip by the party.

His case worsened when Dogara’s proposal excluded his zone, North-East, from the four contested principal offices.

“Ordinary, I should have been the last person to be part of this meeting, considering the fact that, all along, I have been the one making the sacrifice.

“Ultimately, I have become the loser in all of this. But, for the interest of the nation and the House, I have accepted to work with this arrangement,” Monguno stated.

The spokesman of the House Dogara, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, had also confirmed that the new development signalled the end of the crisis.

Jibrin promised that the loyalists group, particularly Gbajabiamila and Monguno, would be adequately compensated in the distribution of key committees in the days ahead.

He said, “We have commenced collection of signatures which has reached advanced stage to affirm the Dogara formula.

“All other interests, including those excluded from the principal officers, specifically, Gbajabiamila and Mongunu, will be duly accommodated with commensurate responsibility to serve.

“Since the Speaker has about 200 positions to share out, many members will have the opportunity to serve the country.”

However, Gbajabiamila was not at the session.

SUNDAY PUNCH made fruitless efforts to get Gbajabiamila to comment on the development on Saturday. He neither answered calls made to his telephones nor returned our correspondent’s calls.

He had also not replied to any of the text messages sent to him on the matter as of 3.28pm.

Spokesman of the APC loyalists group, Mr. Nasiru Zango-Daura, however issued a statement, saying the group would not support the sharing arrangement adopted by Ado-Doguwa, Monguno and Iriase.

The one-paragraph statement read, “The APC Loyalists Group hereby denies and unequivocally rejects any purported endorsement of a so -called formula on the APC leadership in the House of Representatives. Any member of our group who claims to be part of this arrangement acts on his own and not on behalf of the group.”

Meanwhile, there is a suit fixed for hearing at an Abuja Federal High Court on Tuesday on the same crisis.

The suit, which was filed by two APC members, is seeking an injunction stopping Dogara from naming any principal officers other than those recommended by the party.

Politicians switch sides, ex-Gbajabiamila loyalists accept Dogara"s offer

Gbajabiamila faction rejects Dogara’s zoning of principal offices

The Femi Gbajabiamila group of the two All Progressives Congress factions at the House of Representatives has rejected the latest zoning proposals on principal officers by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.

Femi Gbajabiamila

The group, which calls itself APC Loyalists’ Group, wrote the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, formally rejecting Dogara’s proposals.

The letter, dated July 18, was made available to The PUNCH on Monday and it confirmed the deepening nature of the leadership tussle.

It was signed by the spokesman of the group, Mr. Nasir Zangon-Daura.

The PUNCH had reported exclusively last week that moves to reconcile the two sides, including an intervention by the Governor of Sokoto State, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, merely left deepening disagreements.

The letter called on the APC to assert its authority in party affairs rather than continue to allow Dogara get away with what it considered to be disloyalty to the party.

It noted that, having emerged as the speaker against the APC’s initial projection that the South-West should produce the speaker, the members expected Dogara to exhibit the “spirit of give and take” by allowing the APC to decide how the remaining principal offices should be shared.

The group stated, “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.

“Article 9.2 of the APC constitution which we all subscribed to states, ‘Members of the party shall be obligated to affirm the party’s aims and objectives.’ The party’s letter to the Speaker on party positions forms part of the aims and objectives of the party.

Furthermore, the President (Muhammadu Buhari) himself has spoken severally that the party is supreme and its decision must be obeyed.”

It will be recalled that Odigie-Oyegun, in a June 23 letter to Dogara, had communicated the APC’s recommendation to zone the office of Majority Leader to the South-West; Deputy Leader to the North-West; Chief Whip to the North-East and Deputy Whip to the South-South.

Yakubu Dogara

But, the speaker declined to name the officers, saying that he was restrained by a court process filed by some lawmakers opposing the APC’s decision.

He also argued that the recommendations of the party negated the Federal Character Principle enshrined in the 1999 Constitution since some zones would be left without a principal position in the House.

Dogara had claimed that since the North-East and the South-West had already produced the Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively, they should not be given additional positions.

His refusal to name the officers had led to the fracas on the floor of the House on June 25, later sending members on a forced four-week break.

In place of the party’s recommendation, Dogara on Thursday last week, wrote Odigie-Oyegun, altering the party’s position with his own proposals.

Dogara zoned the majority leader to the North-West; deputy leader to the North-Central; chief whip to the South-South; and deputy whip to the South-East in defence of his argument that each zone must be represented on the leadership.

But, in writing Odigie-Oyegun, the Gbajabiamila group dismissed the latest proposals, pointing out that it seemed the whole idea was to keep Gbajabiamila out of the leadership structure by all means.

Gbajabiamila faction rejects Dogara’s zoning of principal offices

National Assembly Crisis: APC set for stormy NEC meeting today

Efforts to resolve the leadership tussle in the National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives, failed on Wednesday as a late-hour meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa did not come out with a clear position on the issue.

APC National Chairman, Odigie Oyegun

The PUNCH learnt that though the President had an audience with a group led by a former House Minority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, the meeting only resolved to push the issue to the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress for resolution.

The APC NEC is scheduled to meet on Friday (today). Analysts said on Thursday that the outcome of the meeting of today would either launch the ruling party on the path of recovery or mar it.

The party’s NEC is made up of President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo; the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; the party’s national leader, Ahmed Tinubu; the party’s 22 state governors and other leaders of the party.

Apparently sensing a turbulent NEC session, some leaders of the party on Thursday enjoined members to embrace peace and join hands in searching for solutions to the crisis eating up the APC.

The leaders, including the party’s National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun; and a former Vice-President of the country, Atiku Abubakar, pleaded with party members to give peace a chance.

The leaders’ plea came just as a combined team of security operatives, drawn from the Department of State Services and the police, were deployed in APC national headquarters, located at Blantyre Street, Wuse II, Abuja.

The security agents were said to have been sent from the Presidential Villa to carry out surveillance at the party secretariat.

The team, led by a Deputy Superintendent of Police, arrived at the APC headquarters at about 1.45pm and left about one hour later after visiting the party chairman’s office and inspecting the conference hall where the NEC meeting is expected to hold.

A National Assembly official told The PUNCH on Thursday that Buhari met with the lawmakers loyal to Gbajabiamila but that the President at the end referred further action to the party’s NEC.

The official said, “Mr. President met with Gbajabiamila and his supporters, who said they are the core APC members in the House. They raised several issues on why the party’s position on the dispute must prevail.

“At the end, the decision was that the NEC should resolve it tomorrow (today) by coming out with a clear position.”

However, a separate source in the Gbajabiamila’s camp claimed that the President aligned with the position already taken by the APC that Gbajabiamila should be the Majority Leader of the 8th Assembly.

“The principal offices will stand as earlier directed by the party. The President said he wanted to be properly briefed, and he was briefed.

“He responded that he aligned with the party and that the briefing at the meeting would also guide the NEC in making its final decision on Friday”, the source said.

Contrary to speculations, Dogara was not invited to the Wednesday’s meeting and he was not expected to be there.

The meeting was said to have been called strictly to meet with the Gbajabiamila group. Buhari had met with the Dogara camp four days earlier.

An official from the Gbajabiamila camp, who did not want to be named, confirmed that the meeting did not include Dogara.

“There is a misconception that the speaker was supposed to be there. The meeting was not meant for him. The speaker already held his own meeting with Mr. President four days ago”, the official added.

The speaker’s office also clarified on Thursday that Dogara was not invited to attend any meeting with Buhari on Wednesday.

His Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Hassan Turaki, in a statement, said, “We wish to make it abundantly clear that there was never a time the Speaker was invited for a meeting with the President on Wednesday, July 1, 2015.”

Meanwhile, the Gbajabiamila group, on Thursday, released a summarised version of the discussions it held with Buhari.

The group said it had told the President that the Federal Character principle on which Dogara hinged his argument for defying the APC was not applicable to elective positions.

The group also informed Buhari that 174 APC members were loyal to the party, while 39 others sided with the Peoples Democratic Party to work against the interest of the ruling party.

It alleged in its submissions to Buhari that the 39 ‘disloyal’ members were likely to defect to the PDP as part of plans to further undermine the APC.

“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 principal officers should be distributed.

“Alas! The opposition and the 39 members continue to hold the ruling party in contempt by disobeying the party,” the document read in part.

On federal character, the group told Buhari that the only way it would be applicable was to advise either the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, or Dogara to step down since both of them are from the North.

The Gbajabiamila’s group said, “Whereas, the beneficiaries of the disobedience are citing federal character principle as the main reason for their disobedience, His Excellency should note that during the 6th Assembly (2007-2011), the following officers were elected from the North-West – The President and Commander in Chief; Ismaila Kawu and Hon Mutawalle. The two occupied two out of the four principal officers’ positions of the minority party.

“Hon. Aminu Tambuwal was elected Deputy Chief Whip.

“Also, during the 7th Assembly, the following officers in government were elected from the North-West – The Vice President; the Speaker, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal; Hon. Ismaila Kawu, deputy minority leader; and 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 two of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is not justifiable and of no legal consequence.

“Its provision in Section 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.”

The group had also called on Buhari to take a categorical stance on the dispute as the only way to stop the ruling party from further ridicule.

The PUNCH learnt that at the earlier meeting between the President and Dogara, the former was said to have been diplomatic by refraining from telling the Speaker in clear terms that his group committed any offence by insisting that federal character must apply in the distribution of the offices.

Dogara was said to have explained to the President that it would not be fair to leave out some zones in the sharing of the principal offices.

One senior National Assembly official, who was privy to the discussions, said, “The Speaker already met with the President earlier in the week to explain the situation to him.

“The issue really is not that he has anything personal against Gbajabiamila. The problem is how to correct the imbalance in the allocation of the positions.

“The aggrieved zones are insisting that the South-West cannot produce the Deputy Speaker and the Majority Leader at the same time.

“It is also not fair to give the North-East any position again, having produced the Speaker. The imbalance has been the issue. As of Wednesday, it remained the issue.

“So long as some persons are not prepared to address this problem of zonal imbalance, there may not be an early resolution of the dispute.”

Odigie-Oyegun, while speaking with reporters at the party’s national headquarters, on Thursday, explained that today’s meeting would afford the party the opportunity to address some of its challenges.

He noted that the party was duty bound to overcome its challenges and forge ahead in the overall interest of the nation.

The APC chairman said, “As painful as the crisis engineered by what transpired in the National Assembly is, party members may have to lose face a little in order to restore peace.

“For me, I think that there is no other way to resolve the conflict other than for all of us to accept compromise. Each one of us will lose face and that is the only way forward.”

Atiku, in a statement by his media office in Abuja, called for the concentration of positive energies on building unity, cohesion and harmony among party leaders and other stakeholders.

“We can resolve our differences when our leaders individually and collectively shift ground from extreme positions and move to the centre in the interest of our party and our country,” the ex-Vice-President said.

Atiku said he was deeply concerned that soon after capturing power, “the APC is torn apart at a time more energies are needed to attend to the objectives of the change agenda for which it was voted into power.”

The statement further explained that the current blame game targeted at individuals was an unnecessary diversion of energies at the expense of the urgency of the mission of the party to make life better for Nigerians.

He was also quoted as saying, the vilification of individual party leaders and members in the face of challenges facing the country was painful to him, adding that the party should learn the lessons and move ahead.

The statement partly read, “While restating his commitment to the party and its change agenda, the former Vice-President advise the party leaders not to allow people of bad faith to fuel division and acrimony among the party, adding that all positive energies should be directed towards sustaining the morale of the voters who look forward to the APC to make their lives better.

“He reminded party leaders that any division could be exploited at the expense of the party. He extended his goodwill to the party for successful deliberations and assured the party of continued support and loyalty at all times.”

The APC has been enmeshed in a crisis of confidence since the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Yakubu Dogara as Speaker, House of Representatives.

Today’s NEC meeting will be the first one since the party won the presidential election of March 28, 2015.

National Assembly Crisis: APC set for stormy NEC meeting today

Fani-Kayode canvasses support for Gbajabiamila

A former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, on Sunday, asked the Peoples Democratic Party members in the House of Representative to vote for Femi Gbajabiamila as the Speaker of the House.

Femi Fani-Kayode

Gbajabiamila, on Saturday, emerged the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 8th Assembly.

Gbajabiamila, who represents Surulere I state constituency, polled 154 votes out of 182 votes to beat Yakubu Dogara in a primary conducted by the APC in Abuja on Saturday.

Fani-Kayode , who was the Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation in the 2015 general election, expressed delight that Gbajabiamila emerged as the consensus candidate on his official Twitter page on Sunday.

He said, ” I am glad that Femi Gbajabiamila has emerged as the APC consensus canddiate for Speaker of the House. I urge the PDP members to vote for him.”

Fani-Kayode canvasses support for Gbajabiamila

Speakership: I’m not Tinubu’s candidate, says Gbajabiamila

The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, denied on Wednesday that he was the candidate of National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for the speakership of the 8th Assembly.

Femi Gbajabiamila

Gbajabiamila, who is one of the leading contestants for the number four job, spoke in Abuja as he met with Peoples Democratic Party members-elect in continuation of his campaign for the position.

Other contenders include Chairman, Committee on House Services, Mr. Yakubu Dogara; Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, Mr. Mohammed Monguno; Chairman, Committee on Finance, Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin; and Mr. Pally Iriase.

However, the race has lately narrowed down to Gbajabiamila and Dogara, seen as the front runners.

Speaking specifically on being Tinubu’s candidate, the Lagos lawmaker said he was often surprised when he heard or read about such insinuation.

He stated that, having led the opposition for eight years in the House, he wondered how people came about the idea that he did not have the capacity to lead the House unless he relied on Tinubu to make a case for him.

However, he admitted that prominent Nigerians, including the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, had pleaded with Tinubu to support him, but that he did not give them any answer until a few weeks back when the APC leader said “ maybe this man (Gbajabiamila) has some appeal.”

He spoke more, “I have led the opposition for the past eight years with the best of my ability. I have faced a lot of threats and intimidation to life right from the time of (Olusegun) Obasanjo up to about two weeks ago.

“The way I stick my neck for the opposition, I seek to do same for Nigeria as speaker. I want this campaign to be about issues and hoped it would be that way, but I heard a lot of many negative stories. I tried to maintain dignified silence, but I want to set the record straight now.

“I intend to be speaker not for anbody. Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu has not hand in it. Lamido Sanusi left his palace in Kano and pleadd with him to support me. He didn’t get a clear answer.

“Shortly after that, Senator Lawan Shuaibu went to Tinubu on the same issue. He still did not respond until when few weeks ago, Nasiru El-Rufai went to meet him, then he said maybe this man has some appeal.

“In 2011, some members from the North went to him to suggest that I should be Tambuwal’s deputy, but he said no to that.”

Gbajabiamila also spoke on how some lawmakers were demanding to be chairmen of particular committees as a condition for supporting him.

He alleged that such members were among the people going about town saying that he was Tinubu’s candidate.

He assured the PDP members that allocation of committees would be based on fairness, justice and quality.

The House Deputy Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, who led the delegation, said the PDP members would go back and study his campaign promises to see how the caucus would key in into his agenda.

Speakership: I’m not Tinubu’s candidate, says Gbajabiamila