Reps In Fresh Crisis Over Committees’ Sharing
Fresh crisis is brewing in the House of Representatives following the announcement of Standing Committees by Speaker Yakubu Dogara last Thursday as lawmakers of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) feel cheated.
Of the 96 of the 97 standing committees in the House, the APC had 48 chairpersons, while the main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had 46 chairmen. APGA and SDP made do with one each.
For the Vice-Chairmen, the PDP ended up with 39 and the APC 55.
But supporters of the Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, who slugged it out with Dogara for the Speakership, have expressed their disappointment over what they termed as “lopsided appointments of committee chairmen by the House leadership.”
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The Gbajabiamila group known as the Loyalists Group, have lamented their shabby treatment with only nine of them getting chairmanship of the committees, pointing out that the ‘juicy’ committees went to the Speaker’s allies in the APC and PDP.
Another major grouse is why the opposition PDP had almost equal number of committees as the ruling party, warning that they would oppose the move at plenary on Tuesday.
A member of the Loyalists Group, who spoke in confidence and asked not to be named with our correspondent, said what the Speaker has done is to polarize the House further and show that he is not ready for unity.
But spokesman of the House, Abdulrazak Namdas, in a statement weekend, debunked the claims that Dogara’s men got more lucrative committees as it was evenly distributed.
