TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house of representatives, of attempting to impose leaders on his colleagues.

Reacting to the fresh crisis rocking the lower legislative chamber of the national assembly over minority leadership position, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP spokesman, said it was improper for Gbajabiamila to go against the choice of the leadership of the party.

He said the PDP leadership had duly written to the speaker after consultations with other minority members, notifying him of members that had been selected for leadership positions in line with dictates of the rules and parliamentary practice.

“However, to our utter dismay, the PDP had discovered that the Speaker attempted to smuggle in names other than those recognized and forwarded to him as the leaders of the Minority in the House of Representatives,” Ologbondiyan said.

“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.”
The leadership of the opposition party had chosen Kingsley Chinda as minority leader, Chukwuka Onyema as deputy minority leader; Yakubu Barde, minority whip and Muraina Ajibola, deputy minority whip.

But the speaker announced Ndidi Elumelu as minority leader, Toby Okechukwu as deputy minority leader, Gideon Gwani as minority whip and Adesegun Adekoya as deputy minority whip.