In a dramatic twist, three aspirants for the Speaker of the incoming 10th House of Representatives, House Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Abdulraheem Olawuyi and Abubakar Makki Yelleman have stepped down from the race to support the All Progressives Congress (APC) concensus candidate, Tajuddeen Abbas.

They made their decision known at the Joint Task-10th Assembly meeting in Abuja Wednesday night.

The meeting was attended by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila and the 10th Senate President concensus candidate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Doguwa who spoke on behalf of the other two candidates said, they have decided to stepdown for the APC’s choice to respect the Party and align with the preferred candidate for the Speakership seat.

“Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I am here to put it on the records that, not just from today, that, right from day one, when the NWC, the National Working Committee of my party put it on the table that, they have come up with a zoning arrangement and after zoning, with all sense of morality, micro-zoned it to the North West and Micro-micro zoned it to my brother, Right Honourable Tajuddeen Abbas representing Zaria federal constituency from North Western Nigeria, as from that date and day, I therefore called my bid to contest for the Speakership of the 10th House of Representatives off.

“I had to to that because I am a man of establishment, I had to do that because I am also a beneficiary of same kind of arrangement then, and today, I have benefited from party arrangements, I have personally benefited from this kind of zoning arrangement, that was what gave me the position of the Chief Whip of the 8th House of Representatives even when there were issues, the zoning held away. Today, I am the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives courtesy of the National Working Committee of my party.

“My great brothers and sisters, courtesy demands that, it is only fair. I also stand by the position of the National Working Committee and the leaders of my great party. It’s not like the table is turning against me, no. The fact is that, time has come for me to also pay back and I think paying back in these circumstances means a great responsibility that I must have to honour and oblige.

“I rise before you today this good evening Mr Speaker, my boss, Right Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila and around me, is Right Honourable Abdulraheem Olawuyi and my other friend here, Honourable Makki Yelleman. We are here individually and collectively stepping into the shoes of this great campaign.

“We all wanted to be Speakers not because we knew that, you can have several Speakers. At every there only can be one Speaker. And in the light of this disposition, I want to say, on behalf of my great men here around me, that we have individually and collectively decided to come and surrender our bids to become Speaker this time around to the great party, the APC and we also defer, on record to our great gentleman that was picked by the party to ran for the Speakership officially on behalf of our great party, Right Honourable Tajuddeen Abbas.

“We are also of the opinion that, the selection process of Right Honourable Tajuddeen Abbas was not in anyway biased. We are also quite aware that, the person of Tajuddeen Abbas and of course his running mate, the Deputy Speakership candidate, they are qualified to hold their respective offices”.

Earlier, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila said even in advanced democracies, one can disagree with his party, but at the end of the day, the party which was an organised entity that survives.

He reminded that members of the party and other parties have treaded the same path in the past and had seen the effects, so the decision was to avoid the mistakes of the past.

According to him, although it was a painful decision taken by the APC to adopt a concensus candidate, it has to be taken into consideration that, there are other considerations taken before arriving at the choice made which was the best for the party and the country.

Recall that Doguwa and six other aspirants which include the Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase, Mukhtar Aliyu Betara, Abubakar Makki Yelleman, Abdulraheem Olawuyi, Miriam Onuoha and Yusuf Adamu Gagdi have rejected the choice of Tajuddeen Abbas as the APC’s candidates.

This led to the formation of the G7, by the aggrieved aspirants who resolved to pick a candidate from among themselves to elect as the next Speaker of the incoming 10th House of Representatives.

Parachoko:
I know Doguwa will eventually step down

socialmediaman:
Aside Mr Yakubu’s magic pen and eraser, poor people actually lined up at the polls to vote these corrupt politicians

trulymatters:
Doguwa has zero integrity. He should gerrout

GeneralPulal:
Good..

Everything is going as it should be..

garfield1:


Hardcore pdp members like Mrs ibori and hon Gary igariwey are with Abbas. Cc aiel123

Aiel123:

I have no problem with that.
What I only know is that Hon Erhiatake won't be returning to any political office after 2023 on PDP platform.
She isn't hardcore PDP. Rather she's a mole.
Hon Igariwey is committed to his party.I knew he will win his election.
If Wase and Betara is not stepping down, there's still a long way to go.

garfield1:


Hardcore pdp members like Mrs ibori and hon Gary igariwey are with Abbas. Cc aiel123

GeneralPulal:

So nice to know..

What do you think is wrong regarding Yari? One of his statements I read, he claimed they didn’t consult him regarding SP at all, which I assume he’s referring to Apc NWC..

garfield1:


How is she a mole? She has been a legislator since 2011 and her dad is part of atiku camp.they are prepping her to be a gov.watch out,by 2031,she will go to senate and later become deputy gov and by 2047,be ready for gov.same thing okowa is doing.
From my calculation,I feel Abbas already has over 180 votes or close to with femi behind him.wase or betara stepping down won't change anything as the greater minority group has split and another group minority caucus has emerged with close to 70 members.
I deduce that Abbas has at least 110,apc members.wike camp can bring 30.most non apc reps in abia ebonyi are behind kalu.with igariwey and erhiatake endorsing,it means up to 10 core pdp members will follow.hon rurum of nnpp has brought 5 others.with kwankwaso meeting tinubu,more can join.thats almost 200.even within g7,Miriam and jaji might be moles.they may end up contesting to divide votes.

trulymatters:
Doguwa has zero integrity. He should gerrout

socialmediaman:
Aside Mr Yakubu’s magic pen and eraser, poor people actually lined up at the polls to vote these corrupt politicians

Aiel123:

The equation has changed. Not now again. Ibori never sided with Atiku. He wasn't present neither did he contribute to the presidential election rather he was frolicking with APC's folks
The delta guber election was an eye opener.
Brazen anti party was on full glare in Oghara. If not for the effort of Jesse zone,APC would have taken Ethiope West,a place where Mrs Ibori and Sen. Amori won convincingly.
She's not going to any senate. She even resigned her position as the chairman of appropriation committee in DSHA.
Unless Sherrif is a fool,he would keep the Iboris at arm length.
They never helped his course.
To the speaker battle
The Atiku camp of PDP which should be around 70 HORs will vote whoever their party says.
If any of Betara or Wase can half the APC legislators, they may stand a chance but I think this may just be a strategy to sell to the media a kind of crack in the APC HOR members but on the contrary everything will be fine and they would end up endorsing Abbas too like Doguwa.

socialmediaman:
Aside Mr Yakubu’s magic pen and eraser, poor people actually lined up at the polls to vote these corrupt politicians

garfield1:


I still dont think ibori and his daughter betrayed pdp if not,DSP would have won ethiope west.
One agba Abraham on fb said overvoting only took place in Bowen ward of warri south lga and without that ward,diden would still have won by 6000

Aiel123:

On what basis would DSP win Ethiope West?
An area that is dominated by PDP since 1999?
And to think this LGA was won by Ibori's daughter and Sen Amori with good margin turned out in the governorship election to be a tight contest between Sherrif and Agege... even Achoja of APC won the state assembly seat ahead of Onogba.
Now this is it Losing heavily in Oghara , Ibori's homestead is enough reason to tell you where he pitched his tent.
There was even a unit that Agege scored 600plus votes as against 6 votes for PDP in Oghara which is claimed to be Ibori's polling unit.
The entire Warri south results was cancelled which gave Joel victory. I didn't see the breakdown of results but informal report was that Joel only won in Isoko south.