WHY DOGARA CONCEEDED LEADERSHIP POSITION TO GBAJABIAMILA'S CAMP.

Members of the Consolidation Group loyal to Speaker Yakubu Dogara have explained that they were conceding the contentious position of House Majority Leader to the opposing Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila group in order for peace to reign in the lower chamber given the workload before the House.

Spokesman of the group, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, told journalists in Abuja yesterday that the concession was a fallout of ongoing peace efforts of the party through the immediate past speaker of the House and current Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who held separate meetings with the warring groups on Tuesday and yesterday.

Jibrin added that he was mandated as the spokesman of the group to brief the press on the conclusions reached so far after a lengthy and tough meeting with Tambuwal, who rein in members of the group on the need for concessions and compromise on the matter.

“There was a consensus that in order to achieve peace and accommodation in the House, that the position of the House Leader be conceded to the Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila group to nominate a candidate.

He said, “However, considering the constitutional requirement of equitable representation and federal character, such candidate should be from any zone other than the north-east and south- west zones that had already produced the speaker and deputy speaker respectively,” he said.

But Hon Ahmed Rufa’i Chanchangi   in a statement on behalf of the 174 APC members of the House loyal to Gbajabiamila, said that in line with the party supremacy stance affirmed at the last APC NEC meeting last Friday, the position of the party on Gbajabiamila as the House Leader is non-negotiable.

He said, “So any purported decision reeled out to the public in the name of the National Assembly peace pact before joint meeting is lopsided and not acceptable to the APC Loyalists group. As a group that wants peace and quick solution to the logjam in the House, the APC loyalists group would equally subscribe to an election among entire members of the APC House Caucus where all members irrespective of zones would exercise their right to elect their principal officers,” he said.