The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Tuesday formally presented Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila to President Muhammadu Buhari as its consensus candidate for the office of the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives.
This was disclosed to State House Correspondents by the Director-General of Femi Gbajabiamila’s campaign for Speakership, Abdulmumuni Jibril, after a closed door meeting with the President on Tuesday.
The meeting preceded a dinner organised in honour of House of Representatives Members-elect at the State House old Banquet hall, Abuja, on Tuesday night.
Speaking at the event, National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiohmole, reiterated his position that the party would not repeat the mistakes of 2015 in 2019 regarding the election of principal officials for the 9th National Assembly.
He insisted that the headship of all ‘critical committees’ in the two chambers would be taken by members of the APC.
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His words: “In life mistakes are permitted, but it becomes a problem if the mistake is repeated twice. We are determined not to repeat the mistakes of 2015 in 2019, we have learnt our lesson. We do not need to do business with the devil for us to survive in the ninth assembly.
“Out of 223 APC elected members, about 67 were re-elected, the rest are new members. In other climes, you don’t go into coalition when you are in the majority, you do so when you don’t have the numbers. We have the numbers, out of 306, Nigerians elected 223 APC members because they don’t want Mr President to face the trauma of 2015.
“Most of those who decamped were rejected and even those who led it were uprooted. We cannot as a party which has a comfortable majority, entrust critical committees in the hands of the PDP or opposition. If Nigerians wanted them, they could have voted them. In the days of PDP, every committee were chaired by PDP members.
Oshiomhole explained that the meeting with President Buhari was meant to ensure smooth election of officials of the forthcoming ninth national assembly adding that there is a role for everyone.
