Members of the North Central caucus in the House of Representatives at an emergency meeting on Wednesday faulted the purported decision by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to allocate some of the positions of principal officers of the House to its members.
The APC, in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, nominated Femi Gbajabiamila (South West) for House Leader, Alhaji Ado Doguwa (North West) for Deputy House Leader, Alhaji Mohammed Monguno (North East) for Chief Whip and Alhaji Mohammed Monguno for Deputy Chief Whip.
Similar letter was written to the Senate, but it was rejected by the Red Chamber which insists that it contravenes its own rules.
Presenting the position of the two caucuses, Alhaji Ahman Aliyu Pategi, who addressed the media said that the decision of the party was tantamount to usurpation of the powers of the zonal caucuses and their members as guaranteed by the constitution and the standing rules of the House of Representatives.
He said, “We therefore strongly reject the purported selection by the party which we see as being in conflict with the principles of the federal character as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic.
The caucus believes strongly that there should be fairness and equity in the selection of other principal positions of the House of Representatives after the emergence of both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. We believe it will be inconsiderate of the party to consider both the North East and South West zones after both zones have produced the Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively.”
Äccording to him, the caucus is at a loss why the APC should ignore the North Central zone that produced about 50 members to the party in the House of Representatives.
He said the caucus is resolved to pursue what it termed “this injustice via all civil and legitimate channels.” Also, the South East caucus rejected the party’s nominations which they alleged have ostracized the zone.
The caucus led by Chukwukere Austine Ikechukwu and Chike Okafor who addressed a press conference at the National Assembly condemned the APC’s decision to deliberately exclude the zone in the sharing arrangement especially as the members fought hard to sell the party in the South East.
Ikechukwu said it would amount to injustice if the office of a principal officer is not ceded to the zone by the APC hierarchy in order to carry the people along in the spirit of unity, equity and justice. “We feel aggrieved by the position that the party has taken. We fought hard to bring the APC to the South East.
It will not be fair for the distribution of principal officers to be made without the South East carried along. Okafor pointed out that the South East has not benefited anything from the stables of the APC and called on the party leadership to cede more seats to the zone.
The position of both caucuses was reinforced on Tuesday by the South-South caucus which rejected the position of Deputy Chief Whip purportedly allocated to it.
The caucus, in a statement signed by its leader, Pally Iriase, lamented what it described as a deliberate effort to marginalise the zone in the sharing structure.
The Rainbow with web reports
