*We’re Still Consulting To Avoid Mistakes – Reps
A new twist may have emerged to the struggle for principal officers positions in the House of Representatives following the emergence of Senator Abdullahi Abubakar Yahaya from Kebi state as Senate Majority Leader.
This is as the leadership of the House of Representatives is still yet to announce it’s principal officers following what it says is the ongoing consultion on the issue, but they are confident the list will be announced before the end of the week.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), had reportedly zoned both the Senate and House Majority leadership seats to North Central and North West respectively until a last minute changes to the arrangements.
It was learnt that Senator Abdullahi Ademu from Nasarawa State until this new arrangement was the preferred candidate for Senate Majority Leader.
However, the positions changed on Tuesday when Senator Yahaya was named the new Senate Majority Leader, automatically taking away any possibility of North West getting the same position in the House.
But the APC had reportedly zoned the House seat to North West where the new Senate Leader hails from, and even micro zoned the position to Kano state with Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa said to be the favourite.
But with the announcement by the Senate president, Ahmad Lawan of Senator Yahaya as leader of the Senate, the North West zone and by implications, Doguwa’s Kano is automatically out of contention for the Majority Leader’s seat in the House.
With the new development, the next zone to be considered for the position would be the North East, with Fifth termer, Hon. Mohammed Tahir Monguno from Borno as the possible Majority Leader.
Monguno, a former Attorney General in Borno state and fifth-timer in the House is said to have been considered to be named the new Majority Whip after a serious protest by APC Reps Caucus who kicked against the choice of Hon. Peter Akpatason from Edo state, South-South Nigeria.
The party after yielding to the pressure reportedly ceded the position to North East and took the Majority Leader’s position to North West, specifically, Kano.
ut TNG gathered that even the Kano caucus are seriously divided on the the choice of Ado Doguwa as the next House Leader, insisting that the zone must be allowed to vote for candidates of its choice.
Hon. Doguwa is being challenged for the position by Hon. Aminu Sulaiman also from Kano, with rumours having it that he’s more acceptable to caucus members than Doguwa whose main backer is said to be the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
However, the development in the Senate presupposes that the APC will have to look elsewhere for it’s House Majority Leader just like the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has done by zoning its Senate Minority leadership seat to the South East and House Minority Leader to the South-South.
Responding to the issue via telephone conversation, Hon. Sada Soli from Katsina noted that the party would have to go back and reconsider its position on who becomes the House Leader.
Hon. Soli, member representing Jibiya Federal Constituency in Katsina state on the platform of the APC explained that the recent development will definitely threaten the chances of his zone, the North West.
“I think with the recent development, the party will have to reconsider its position.”
“This will definitely threaten the chances of the North-West” He said.
A member of the house ad-hoc committee on Media, Bamidele Salam while defending the delay in the announcement also said the House needed to consult extensively so as to not make any avoidable mistake.
“It wasn’t announced because there is a need for wider consultations”, he said.
He added that the positions will be announced before the end of the week.
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