Members of the All Progressives Congress in the House of Representatives who are loyal to the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, have described as a “very dangerous trend” their being referred to as “new PDP” allegedly by their counterparts who belong to Femi Gbajabiamila camp.
The Dogara faction has also moved to break the faction of Mr. Gbajabiamila, by nominating one his loyalists, Alhassan Doguwa, for the position of majority leader.
Struggle over leadership positions has, since the National Assembly was inaugurated on June 9, polarised the APC members in the House into two factions led by Messrs Dogara and Gbajabiamila.
Mr. Gbajabiamila was anointed by the party leadership to emerge speaker but lost following Mr. Dogara’s defiance.
Shortly after the Gbajabiamila group announced it was dragging Mr Dogara; deputy speaker, Yusuf Lasun; and the clerk of the House of Representatives to court over the House’s principal positions, the opposing Dogara group issued a statement Tuesday night.
In the statement signed by Abdulmumin Jubrin, Kano State, the Dogara group urged the party leadership to ensure the tag of “new PDP” does not continue, stressing their sacrifice for the APC.
“It is important for Mr. President and the party to note that while people like Gbajabiamila were busy having fun, some of us including governors and thousands of our supporters left the PDP at great personal risk to join APC,” the statement said.
“Today, they still disdainfully call us nPDP. This is a very dangerous trend that must not be allowed to continue. We therefore urge the party to call on Gbajabiamila to stop spreading hatred within the party.”
Although the group expressed “undiluted support” for the party leadership, they said the proposal of Mr. Dogara in respect of leadership of positions of House should be respected.
“We wish to state that we unequivocally support “The Dogara Formula” in the distribution of the principal officers’ positions in the House of Representatives as proposed by the Honourable Speaker Yakubu Dogara,” the statement said.
“In his proposal, the speaker rightly allocated the House majority leader to the North West, deputy house leader to the North Central, the chief whip to the South-South and the deputy chief whip to the South East. Since the north east and south west already has the speaker and deputy, they were excluded.
“This proposal is in tandem with the Constitution of The Federal Republic of Nigeria, the spirit of federal character and the need for equity, fairness and justice.
“For the benefit of enlightenment, it is important to state that in terms of the leadership status of these vacant positions, the house leader is the most senior, followed by the chief whip. In the spirit of reconciliation and unity, Speaker Dogara has graciously conceded the positions of House Leader and Chief Whip to the Femi Gbajabiamila group.”
The Dogara loyalists adopted Mr. Doguwa and other members for the four principal positions.
“Consequently, we the Consolidation Group have decided to adopt Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa from the North West as house leader, Hon. Buba Jibrin from the North Central as deputy house leader, Hon. Pally Iriase from the South South as the chief whip and Hon Chika Okafor from the South East as the deputy chief whip. We therefore call on our supporters to intensify lobbying at the zonal caucuses to ensure that these members emerge to assume the positions.
“Kindly note that Hon Alhassan Doguwa is the head of the Gbajabiamila Group while Hon Pally Iriase was in the speakership race but stepped down for Gbajabiamila and assumed a very prominent role in the Gbajabiamila group.
“Similarly, we call on the party to disregard the letter purportedly written by the Gbajabiamila group, which we know contemptuously emanated from the duo of Gbajabiamila and Hon. Falake without due consultation with the APC caucus in the House, many of whom are in full support of Dogara, his peace efforts and proposal for distribution of the remaining principal officers.”
PREMIUM TIMES understands that the core loyalists of Mr. Gbajabiamila believe the insistence of Mr. Dogara on not allowing a majority leader from the South West where the Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuf, also hails from is “targeted at ensuring anybody but Gbajabiamila becomes the majority leader”.
“The (majority) leader can be anybody from any zone,” a source close to Mr. Gbajabiamila said. “But the person must not be Gbajabiamila. That’s the unspoken position of Dogara.”
However, the Dogara group added that, ” the Speaker still has over 200 positions to allocate and Gbajabiamila will have the opportunity to serve.”
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