Fresh Crisis Rocks House Of Reps Over Leaked Letter

 

Femi Gbajabiamila

 The letter dated October 20 was sent by the leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila to the speaker Yakubu Dogara may lead to another crisis between the two lawmakers and their loyalists.

In the letter leaked to the media, on Tuesday, November 4, Gbajabiamila said he had knowledge of the Speaker’s readiness to announce the composition of the chairmen and vice chairman of the house committees the week he actually did without consulting the principal officers of the House.

This action would mean undermining the office of the majority leader and those of other principal officers in violation of the House Rules, Gbajabiamila said.

Leaking the letter which was also copied to the  chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) John Oyegun, is believed to be a move to prepare ground for another round of clash in the House.

Already, many loyalists of Gbajabiamila including Ahmed Idris representing Katsina state and Sunday Adepoju of Oyo state have condemned the alleged lopsidedness of the composition of the committees.

But Dogara said he had invite Gbajabiamila and other principal officers for consultation before announcing the leaderships of the committees.

His spokesperson Turaki Hassan said the speaker met with and consulted the principal officers before the announcement was made.

That was in the morning and the announcement was around 3.30pm, Hassan said.

He added that Gbajabiamila was at the meeting but did not raise any objection.

In the past week, some members of the House of Representatives from APC asked Dogara to retrieve the oil and gas sector committee from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members.
The members, who are aggrieved over the decision of Dogara to give the PDP committees regarded as ”juicy”, expressed disgust at the Speaker’s action.