The crisis within the All Progressives Congress over the choice of
candidates for the speakership and the Senate presidency of the 8th
National Assembly deepened on Sunday as candidates not endorsed by the
party's leadership vowed to contest the elections on Tuesday.
Findings in Abuja on Sunday showed that the candidates – Yakubu Dogara
(House of Representatives) and Bukola Saraki (Senate) had intensified
lobbying the Peoples Democratic Party incoming lawmakers.
Senators-elect and their counterparts for the House began
accreditation for the Tuesday election at the National Assembly in
Abuja on Sunday.
The immediate past Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, had at the
party's mock election on Saturday emerged the APC consensus
candidate for the post of speaker. He polled 154 votes as against
Yakubu Dogara's three votes.
A total of 183 members registered for the mock election but the votes
of four were declared as invalid.
Bukola Saraki's group boycotted the primary conducted for senate
presidency , but the APC picked Ahmad Lawan, who got 32 votes.
Votes allocated to Dogora, a fraud, says Jibrin
But on Sunday, the spokesperson for the 8th Assembly Consolidation
Group which is Dogara's campaign body, Abdulmumin Jibrin, warned
that the APC was a on a path of self-destruction by sticking to the
outcome of the primary.
Jibrin, a former Chairman, House Committee on Finance and contestant
for the speakership until last week when he stepped down to support
Dogara, insisted that there was no election.
"The mock election is a blatant lie. It was very shameful and
disgraceful and the party only made a mockery of itself.
"We walked out of the hall and we never participated in the election.
Therefore, the votes allocated to us were a fraud and we will not
accept them," he told a news conference on Sunday.
Jibrin claimed that members of the group had received threats of
disciplinary actions from the party since Saturday, but he restated
the resolve of Dogara's supporters to ignore the APC and nominate
him(Dogora) for Tuesday's (tomorrow) election.
Disclosing that the group had petitioned Buhari to wade into the
matter, he said it was regrettable that in just a week after the APC
formed the government at the Federal level, it appeared set on
"derailing" from the ideals which propelled it to power.
"We have decided to write a petition to Buhari to intervene in this
matter; to call the party to order. We will go ahead to nominate
Dogara on the 9th and we will not back out," he said.
The group seized the opportunity to unveil Lasun Yusuf, a member
from Osun State, as Dogora's running mate .
The same Yusuf, had last week, announced that he was backing
Gbajabiamila, only to make a U-turn on Sunday.
Support us, Gbajabiamila's secretariat tells Dogara
Shortly after the news conference, The Gbajabiamila Secretariat in
Abuja called on the Dogara group to bury the hatchet and join the
Lagos State lawmaker to build the House as from Tuesday.
It noted that had Dogara won the mock election instead of
Gbajabiamila, the former minority leader would have supported him,
being the candidate so chosen by the party.
The secretariat, also said there was nothing strange in conducting a
mock election, which it argued was not different from the primaries
members participated in before their election to the National
Assembly.
Dickson Tarkighir, who spoke for the secretariat said, "It is
unfortunate that some members sought for intervention of the party
before their election into the National Assembly but suddenly realised
that the unbiased intervention of the party in the mock election is
inappropriate.
"Definitely, these are not agents of change. The party gave
members-elect the platform to elect a popular candidate that would
represent the party in the House and we are glad that at the end of
that exercise, it was res ipsa loquitur.
"Had Dogara won the mock election we would have all queued behind him
now but as a mark of discipline and respect for the party, we are all
behind Gbajabiamila."
However,The PUNCH reports that Gbajabiamila would most likely emerge
as the speaker, barring any major alterations in the support structure
he already had among members-elect.
It was learnt that flowing from his victory on Saturday, the
North-West and North-East caucuses of the House resolved to sustain
their support for him on Tuesday.
He was said to be already assured of the votes of 47 out of the 48 APC
members from the South-West.
Findings revealed that the North-West, with 87 APC lawmakers, had over
84 backing Gbajabiamila.
Read more at ThePUNCH:
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