Speakership: Gbajabiamila, Dogara split state caucuses

State and zonal caucuses of the House of Representatives are now sharply divided over the ambition of House Minority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, and Chairman, Committee on House Services, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, to become the speaker of the 8th Assembly.

Findings showed that the crack also cut across party lines as the two foremost contestants intensified their campaign for the number four job in the country.

Gbajabiamila and Dogara had taken their campaign to state and zonal caucuses last week, visiting states to meet with lawmakers in their constituencies ?ahead of the election, expected to take place on June 6.

SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that some caucus meetings also took place in Abuja before the contestants took the battle to the home ground.

It was gathered that the idea of using mobilisation committees to visit states was to “interact” with the majority of the lawmakers “who are new comers and will not formally be members of the House before the day of the election.”

Over 233, out of the 360 members are new, a reason taking the campaign beyond the vicinity of Abuja became important.

However, findings showed that lawmakers were split over Gbajabiamila and Dogara, resulting in endorsements and denial of endorsements of the contestants.

Investigations revealed that caucuses would meet with either Gbajabiamila or Dogara, pledge their loyalty? as a group, only for some members of the same group to back out later.

A National Assembly official confided in SUNDAY PUNCH that the development occurred because some state governors and political godfathers were reportedly “exerting control” over the members.

The official added, “There are conflicting interests. Governors and godfathers have started monitoring the race.

“Within the? APC, even as the party with the majority, there are disagreements. Not all APC members are on the same page regarding the contestants.

“There is the PDP interest too, a party which wants to exert some influence as the leading minority party.”

An example of the crack in the caucuses is most visible in the North-Central states.

Last Wednesday, some members, who said they were speaking on behalf of the states in the zone, signed a statement endorsing the candidacy of Dogara.

Barely 24 ?hours later, about 20 lawmakers jointly signed another statement, denying that they endorsed Dogara.

Rather, they made it clear that their vote would be for Gbajabiamila.

Yet in another dramatic twist, a third statement came out on Friday night, with the lawmakers saying that they were not consulted when the Gbajabiamila endorsement was done.

However, in Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi, FCT and Niger States, members are divided over Gbajabiamila and Dogara.

For example, a former Speaker of Nasarawa State House of Assembly and member of the House, Mr. Mohammed Onawo, had his name appearing on both Gbajabiamila’s and Dogara’s endorsement lists.

The same Onawo attended another meeting of Conference of Former Speakers of State Houses of Assembly last week in Abuja, where he joined others to endorse another contestant, Mr. Pally Iriase.

Iraise is an APC lawmaker from Edo State.

When contacted, a member of the Kwara caucus and spokesman of the House, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, told SUNDAY PUNCH that there was no confusion in the endorsement done by state caucuses.

“There is no division; if people did not endorse you, they will say so. If they endorsed you, they will say so. And I think people have been coming out to speak their minds”, Mohammed added.