Gbajabiamila has been a member of the House, representing Surulere I Constituency in Lagos State, since 2003. Initially concerns were raised about zoning both the Vice Presidency and Speakership to the South West zone, but the party maintained that the Speakership had not been zoned.
The leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has held an election to select who will be nominated as the party’s candidate for the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The election took place at the International Conference Centre in Abuja. Femi Gbajabiamila won the APC ticket with 154 out of 182 votes. His main rival, Dogara Yakubu, stormed out of the building with his supporters alleging irregularities.
It has been gathered that the Consolidation Group, comprising members loyal to Mr. Dogara would also carry out a parallel primary at a different venue.
We cannot confirm if the rival election is taking place presently.
However, the spokesperson of the APC, Lai Mohammed, informed us that the party is just trying to be democratic by allowing the members select their speaker on their own.
“Out of 218 members, 160 are already here and minority cannot hold majority to ransom,” he said.The APC will control 214 of the 360 seats in the Federal House of Representatives.
Since 300 of the 360 members are in the House of Representatives for the first time, only about 17% of members were ranking members, including both Mr. Dogara and Mr. Gbajabiamila. With the APC’s majority, it’s choice for Speaker will most likely end up winning the office.
The race for Speaker has seen many twists. The first signs of disunity concerned the candidacy of the favourite, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Minority Leader in the last assembly, who enjoys the support of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Gbajabiamila has been a member of the House, representing Surulere I Constituency in Lagos State, since 2003. Initially concerns were raised about zoning both the Vice Presidency and Speakership to the South West zone, but the party maintained that the Speakership had not been zoned.
Soon other candidates for the Speakership declared themselves, among them Abdulmumin Jibrin, who entered the House on the platform of the PDP in 2011 but joined the APC in 2013. Jibrin represents Kiru/Bebeji Constituency in Kano State.
His candidacy received support from PDP Representatives, prompting concerns about the APC’s ability to hold its own as a majority party. Earlier this week, Jibrin withdrew his candidacy on behalf of Yakubu Dogara, Chairman of the House Services and Welfare Committee. Dogara has been a member of the House since 2007, and represents the Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa-Balewa constituency in Bauchi state (North East zone).
On why Mr. Dogara and his group left, Mr. Mohammed said the argument of the group was that they were not given notice of election. The party is expected to carry out the same nomination for the Senate. It is not clear yet whether that vote will hold Saturday.