The group loyal to Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila in the House of Representatives, APC Loyalists’ Group, has rejected Speaker Yakubu Dogara’s latest zoning proposals on principal officers.
The group, in a letter it wrote to the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, asked the Chairman to ignore the Speaker’s proposal.
The letter, dated July 18, was signed by the spokesman of the group, Mr. Nasir Zangon-Daura.
The group urged the APC to assert its authority in party affairs instead of allowing Dogara get away with what it considered to be disloyalty to the party.
According to the group, having emerged as the speaker against the APC’s initial projection that the South-West should produce the speaker, the members expected Dogara to exhibit the “spirit of give and take” by allowing the APC to decide how the remaining principal offices should be shared.
The letter reads in part: “Mr. Chairman, history beckons and posterity will always judge our conduct and contributions to the development of our democracy. A political party is an institution and its supremacy is universal and not a Nigerian coinage.
“It is on record that the Speaker defied the party going into the elections and he is about to repeat such defiance. The party must assert its authority over all its members, the Speaker inclusive, as none of us came to the House as independent candidates and we subscribed expressly and impliedly to the party’s supremacy in political activities.
“Article 9.2 of the APC constitution which we all subscribed to states, ‘Members of the party shall be obligated to affirm the party’s aims and objectives.’ The party’s letter to the Speaker on party positions forms part of the aims and objectives of the party.
Furthermore, the President (Muhammadu Buhari) himself has spoken severally that the party is supreme and its decision must be obeyed.”
DAILY POST recalls that the party chairman, Odigie-Oyegun, in a June 23 letter to Dogara, had communicated the APC’s recommendation to zone the office of Majority Leader to the South-West; Deputy Leader to the North-West; Chief Whip to the North-East and Deputy Whip to the South-South.
The speaker however refused to tow party lines, saying he was restrained by a court process filed by some lawmakers opposing the APC’s decision.
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