Sources at the closed-door meeting claimed that the members-elect signed the register for the phones and other gift items in an envelope before all was handed to them.
Femi Gbajiabiamila, the All Progressives Congress (APC) anointed candidate for the speakership of the 9th House of Representatives, injected a new style into his campaign for the office as he gathered members-elect from across political divides in Abuja to sell his manifesto to them.
Apart from unveiling his game plan for the forthcoming election for principal officers of the National Assembly slated for next month, Gbajiabiamila also lavished the lawmakers with gift items.
However, journalists were asked to leave the New Chelsea Hotel in Abuja, the venue of the meeting, before the gifts were distributed to the lawmakers.
The gifts included smartphones, among other items, which the lawmakers were seen carrying around in packs as they posed for photographs, the New Telegraph newspaper reported.
Sources at the closed-door meeting claimed that the members-elect signed the register for the phones and other gift items in an envelope before all was handed to them. The sources declined to disclose what was in the envelope that each beneficiary received.
It was learnt that the meeting was presided over by Gbajabiamila, who hinted that he currently enjoys the support of 178 reps-elect from all the major political parties in the House. This number, according to his political loyalists in the green chamber, is sufficient to win him the speakership seat.
Onofiok Luke (PDP, Akwa Ibom), one of the loyalists of Gbajabiamila, who addressed a press conference after conferring with Gbajiabiamila, said they opted to support him for the office because of his capacity, openness and experience in the National Assembly.
Luke, who is the outgoing speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and member-elect for the incoming House of Representatives, said all the 178 members-elect rooting for Gbajiabiamila attended the meeting and resolved to adopt him for the office, because “he is a non-sectional lawmaker".
Luke said: “This is a conglomeration of people of different parties. I am of the PDP, we have members of APC here, and we have members of APGA and we have people from AA. We have others from the SDP and from the ADC. It’s a multi-party arrangement.
“We decided to convene ourselves as newly-elected members of the National Assembly, because we have acknowledged the fact that because of the challenges that we have, we need a bi-partisan approach to solving them and the only person that shows that credibility, capacity, and all it takes even as reflected in his manifesto to carry the entire parties along, is Honourable Femi Gbajiabiamila.
“The man will not mortgage the independence of the legislature and will at the same time not engage the executive in a fiasco; he is a man who will build a good relationship between the executive and the legislature, and between the legislature and the judiciary.
“Hon Gbajiabiamila is a leader who will care about the welfare of all Nigerians; he is a man who will put the interest of Nigerians above his personal goals. He will also put the interest of Nigeria above the party.
"We have resolved today by coming from our different constituencies and as newly-elected members, having looked through the credentials of the contenders, have found in Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, a man who has the capacity to be the speaker of House of Representatives in the 9th National Assembly."