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As the leadership crisis in the House of Representatives lingers, the former Minority leader of the House Femi Gbajabiamila has been accused of threatening to make the House hot when plenary resumes if he was not made leader.
But Gbajabiamila denied ever making such a threat and accused the Speaker’s camp of making such allegations.
He said he was a man of peace and believed people should learn to discuss and not resort to violence.
The allegation against the APC-adopted candidate for the Speaker who lost to Hon. Yakubu Dogara was made by Hon. Yunusa Abubakar Ahmad (APC, Gombe) in Abuja on Tuesday on a monitored AIT programme, tagged “AIT Parliamentary.”
Responding to a question on the House leadership crisis, he claimed that a serving governor whose name was not mentioned had said that Gbajabiamila threatened to cause more havoc in the House if he did not emerge as the leader when the House resumes for plenary July 21.
According to him, “A State Governor told me in confidence that Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila told him that if he is not made the Leader of the House, what happened on the floor of the House on June 25 will be a child’s play.”
The lawmaker, who is in the Speaker’s camp, also faulted the list of Principal Officers sent to the House by the APC leadership which could not be read by Dogara on the floor before the fight broke out on June 25, which led to the adjournment to July 21.
He said the list was contrary to the spirit of federal character as it concentrated leadership positions on just two geopolitical zones, the South-West and the North-East.
He said, “If you look at the list that the party sent, Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, South West) will be Leader of the House, Hon. Muhammed Tahir Monguno (North East) will be Chief Whip, Hon. Pally Iriase from South-South was given the Deputy Whip while Hon. Hassan Garba Ado-Doguwa (North West) will be Deputy Leader; which would have given two principal positions each to the South West and the North East.”
But when contacted to confirm the allegation, Gbajabiamila said, “I do no such thing. It must be story from the other side (Dogara camp). I am a man of peace and believe people should learn to discuss and not resort to violence.
“Whoever did that obviously does not know me. No office or position is worth such threats. I will advise if you want to engage in investigative journalism, you ask whoever made such a comment to come out with who the threat was made to and when.”
