Dogara concedes House leader to Gbajabiamila group

Members of the House of Representatives loyal to Speaker Yakubu Dogara have agreed to concede the position of House leader to the group loyal to Femi Gbajabiamila as part of efforts to restore peace to the House.

The House has been enmeshed in crisis following Dogara’s election against the wish of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The APC had supported Gbajabiamila to emerge speaker.

After losing the speakership election, the party nominated the lawmaker as the House majority leader, a proposal since opposed by Dogara.

The concession follows a meeting, which held Tuesday night between Dogara and some members of the House, with the immediate past speaker and current governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, in Abuja.

APC governors had, after their meeting last week, formed a committee led by Tambuwal to mediate and find a solution to the crisis in the House.

A member of the House who attended Tuesday’s meeting said that lawmakers had insisted that on the principal officers of the House, “equity and fair play should be the dominant consideration.

“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.

He added, however, that “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”.

The source added that the members informed Tambuwal that there were already pending suits from members and groups from the South East and North Central zones on the matter and that only a fair resolution that carries every zone along would be acceptable.