Speaker Dogara, APC Chieftain Bicker Over Loyalty To Party
Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives[/caption]
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has replied the APC candidate in Saturday’s Rivers South-East Senatorial re-run election, Senator Magnus Abe, over allegations the latter made that the Speaker was working in interest of the PDP ahead of the National Assembly elections in the state.
The House had invited Senator Abe to attend an investigative hearing before it over the incidence of violence in the March rerun elections held in the state.
His summon follows a petition written against the Nigerian Army by the Civil Liberties Organisation.
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But Abe had, in a letter addressed to Dogara, accused the speaker of providing a clear political advantage for the PDP to oust the APC in the December 10 rerun.
In response to Abe’s allegations, Dogara, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Turaki Hassan, told the Senator that he remains a loyal party man, adding that he already would not want to join issues with him.
“The speaker’s only role in the allegation made by the distinguished senator is that of a presiding officer who brings down the gavel in affirmation of a decision taken by majority members of the House of Representatives. Dogara neither introduced the motion to conduct a public hearing on Rivers State election, neither did he support any party during the debate,” the statement read.
“The Speaker wishes to make it clear that he is always fair when presiding over issues raised by members of various parties in the House of Representatives, and this does not equate to discriminating against his own party, the All Progressives Congress (APC),” it added.
