Pro-Gbajabiamila Lawmakers Accuse Speaker, Deputy Of Anti-Party Roles

Members of the 8th Rivers State House of Assembly voting in favour of a motion mandating the State Governor to dissolve the state Local Government Service Commission, yesterday.

Members of the House
of Representatives who are in support of Hon Femi Gbajabiamila have accused the House speaker, Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara and his group of anti-party activities.
The pro-Gbajabiamila lawmakers, while briefing president Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday evening, at the conference Hall of the First Lady’s office inside the Presidential Villa Abuja, alleged that the pro-Dogara Lawmakers colluded with the opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to polarise the All Progressives Congress (APC) to give them room for defection to the PDP.
The meeting which was held behind closed-doors had Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and 30 lawmakers led by Gbajabiamila in attendance.
Copies of their presentation to the president were made available to journalists at the end of the meeting.
Members of the House elected on the platform of the APC have been locked in crisis over the election of the House Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Dogara and Hon. Lasun emerged the Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively, contrary to the directives of the party to vote for Hon. Gbajabiamila and Hon Mohammed Mangunu for the two positions.
While 174 APC lawmakers obeyed their party’s directives to vote for Gbajabiamila and Mongunu, 39 other APC members formed an alliance with the opposition to elect Dogara and Lagun as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively.
The APC became more polarized following the refusal of the speaker to announce the party’s choice for the four remaining principal officers of the House, resulting in free-for-all.
The APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, had in a letter dated June 22, 2015 and addressed to the speaker, nominated Gbajabiamila as the House majority leader, Alhassan Doguwa as Deputy majority leader, Mohammed Monguno as Chief Whip and Pally Iriase as Deputy Chief Whip.
In their presentation to the president on Wednesday, the pro-Gbajabiamila lawmakers called for the intervention of  the president in order to save the party’s integrity.
They demanded that Dogara be asked to return to their fold and announce the other four principal officers positions in the House as directed by the party.
Part of the presentation reads. “It is noteworthy that Mr President and the governors had strongly put their weight behind the party and had severally admonished the House to abide by the party’s position.
“The 39 APC members in the House (Pro-Dogara) continue to collude with the PDP to flagrantly disobey Mr President, the governors and the party with a view to bringing the party and government to ridicule before Nigerians.
“The conduct of the 39 APC members colluding with the PDP is tantamount to affront, intimately targeted at polarising our party so as to give room for many of them to decamp to the PDP.

Boye Salau