10th Speaker: We didn’t endorse Tajudeen – Minority caucus

By Christiana Ekpa

The Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives has distanced itself from the rumour that it has endorsed Tajudeen Abass as the House of Representatives Speaker for the 10th National Assembly.
The caucus’ secretary, Ali Isa, in a statement, asked members and the general public to disregard the rumour, even as he acknowledged that the caucus met with Abass, the preferred candidate of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of ongoing consultations with stakeholders in the House on the issue relating to the selection of the speaker.
“It is fake news. Our caucus will only make our choices known after we have concluded all necessary consultations, and our choice will ultimately be based on what will be acceptable to the generality of Nigerians.
“We hereby use this opportunity to categorically state that at no time did the Minority Caucus endorse any one, and we wish to add that as part of our ongoing consultations with all relevant stakeholders, which also includes receiving presentations from all the aspirants for speakership, the group merely met with Femi Gbajabiamila, the outgoing Speaker of the House of Reps, and Tajudeen Abbas, who also engaged our committee and made his own presentation to solicit the support of members of our caucus to work with him just like the other aspirants did.
“At no time did we make any announcement endorsing anyone for any office, and neither did we promise such endorsement to any aspirant or their proxies. He disclosed that members of the caucus would embark on a retreat to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, starting from May 31 to June 3, 2023”, he said.
Similarly, the members of the G7 Speakership aspirants of the 10th House of Representatives met with members of the minority caucus of the lower legislative chamber.
The group, comprising the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase, Muktar Betara, Sada Soli, Aminu Jaji, Yusuf Adamu Jaji and Miriam Onuoha promised the caucus that they would come up with a consensus candidate soon.
The group led by Fred Agbedi reiterated their commitment to work with the caucus tagged the ‘greater majority’ due to its 183 numerical strength in the green chamber.
Soli, who spoke during the parley, assured them of their unalloyed support, promising to present a consensus candidate to the greater majority.
Responding on behalf of the greater majority, Fred Agbedi thanked the G7 in seeing the greater majority as partners in progress for the growth of the 10th House of Representatives.
He assured the G7 that the caucus has not endorsed any candidate, as it will work with all members elect of the minority to ensure that the 10th house has a speaker for all.