From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Publicity, Benjamin Kalu, has received a boost in his quest to serve as Deputy Speaker in the 10th assembly, following the withdrawal of some speakership aspirants, opposed to his endorsement, from the contest.
Kalu, who had earlier indicated interest to serve as the speaker of the House in the next dispensation, was endorsed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its choice for the position of deputy speaker, which was zoned to the South East, where he hails from.
The Chairman, House Committee on Land Transport, Tajudeen Abass, was also endorsed as the ruling party’s choice for the speakership position in the 10th House.
House leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, who among others had kicked against the endorsement, at a meeting of the Joint Task-10th Assembly, a coalition of lawmakers-elect committed to ensuring respect for the APC zoning formula, publicly announced his withdrawal for the speakership contest.
Ado-Doguwa, accompanied by two other speakership aspirants, Abdulraheem Olawuyi and Makki Abubakar Yalleman, said they will now work for the emergence of Abass and Kalu as Speaker and deputy speaker respectively.
His words: “I rise before you this evening my colleagues and Rt Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila, and flanking me are Rt Hon Abdulraheem Tunji and Rt Hon Makki Abubakar Yalleman. We have individually and collectively decided to come and surrender our bids to be Speaker to our great party, and we also defer on record to our great gentleman that was picked by the party to run for the Speakership officially on behalf of our great party, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas.
“We are also of the opinion that the selection process of Hon. Tajudeen Abbas and Hon Benjamin Kalu was not in any way biased. We are also quite aware that the person of Tajudeen Abbas and his running mate, Kalu are qualified to hold their respective offices.”