Reps in near fisticuffs over principal officers’ positions

…PDP rejects Gbajabiamila’s attempt to impose minority leadership

…Henry Omunu & Tunde Opalana, Abuja

The House of Representatives on Tuesday witnessed a rowdy session following disagreements over the announcements of principal officers of the minority parties in the House.

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila had informed the House that he has received a letter from the joint leadership of the minority parties informing him of their choice of leaders.

As the speaker proceeded to read the letter aloud, a PDP House member, Rep. Kingsley Chinda raised a point of order citing Order 6 (II) of the House rules, insisting that it is the sole responsibility of the leadership of the minority party to nominate and submit the names of its principal officers to the House.

Rep. Chinda stated that “our practice has never been the collating of signatures of members to appoint the officers. I’ll plead that the speaker suspends the letter.”

Responding, the speaker cited Rule 14 of the House which entails the eligibility of any House members who desires to be a principal officer, asserting that the nomination of the minority principal officers does not belong to only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but other parties in the House.

And to this end, he ruled Chinda out of order.

But, while attempting to announce the names of the minority principal officers from the letter in his possession, some members attempted to snatch the mace resulting in a counter-measure by members of the House in favour of the speaker’s action to read out the controversial letter.

In spite of the resultant commotion caused by the attempt to snatch and protect the mace, Speaker Gbajabiamila announced Rep. Ndudi Elumelu (PDP/Delta) as minority leader, Rep. Tobi Okechukwu as deputy minority leader, Rep. Gwani Gideon as minority whip and Rep. Adekoya Segun as deputy minority whip.

Briefing newsmen shortly after plenary, Rep. Chinda led a group protesting PDP House members insisting that the list of minority principal officers to both the Senate and the House of Representatives has been forwarded to the Senate and House by the leadership of the party.

They therefore, disowned the names announced by Speaker Gbajabiamila, adding that “we are not aware of the letter and the names contained in it; two letters were written by the PDP leadership, one to the Senate and one to the House of Representatives, the Senate complied and we expected the speaker to comply too.”

He disclosed that in the PDP letter, he was nominated as minority leader Rep. Chukwuka Onyema as his deputy while Yakubu Barde was nominated as minority whip with Rep. Ajibade Muriana as deputy minority whip.

On his part, Rep. Ndudi Elumelu argued that the minority positions in the House belong to nine political parties that make up the minority and not the PDP alone.

He cited Order 7, rules 8 of the House of Representatives rule book to buttress his claims, insisting that the speaker did the right thing by announcing the minority principal officers explaining that 111 members from nine political parties elected them.

While apologising to Nigerians on what happened on the floor of the House, Rep. Elumelu reiterated that his group remains loyal to the PDP, but stressed that they acted according to the rules of the House.

Also reacting to the incident, the House ad hoc Committee on Media insisted that the speaker acted according to the House rules as contained in Order 7, rule 8.

In a related development, a member elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, Rep. Bugaji Kazaure, in his reaction, appealed to the party not to interfere in the nomination of majority principal officers to avoid the crisis generated by the announcement of minority principal officers.

“The party should not dictate to us, I am interested in the position of majority leader and I want us to be elected the same way and manner we elected the speaker and his deputy,” he said, stressing that to do otherwise amounts to injustice.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the attempt by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to impose leaders for the party in the House of Representatives.

The party said that it had duly written to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, after consultation with other minority members in the House of Representatives, notifying him of members that have been selected for leadership position in the House of Representatives, in line with dictates of the rules and parliamentary practice.

However, to the party’s utter dismay, it said that it discovered that the Speaker attempted to smuggle in names other than those recognised and forwarded to him as the leaders of the Minority in the House of Representatives.

“The PDP, in the strongest terms, cautions against this abuse of rules, parliamentary practices and procedures as well as the convention and we urge the Speaker to respect the rules and read the list submitted to him by the leadership of the PDP,” said PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement.

According to him, the list forwarded to the Speaker by the PDP include names of Hon. Kingsley Chinda – Minority Leader, Hon. Chukwuka Onyema- Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Yakubu Barde – Minority Whip, and Hon. Muraina Ajibola – Deputy Minority Whip