•South-East’ll speak with one voice – Rep-elect

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

A group, Progressives Foundational Movement (PFM), has urged both the APC and President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to stand by their earlier endorsement of Tajudeen Abass as anointed Speaker House of Representatives.

The group noted that apart from his proven academic, leadership track records in public service and legislative sagacity, the lawmaker is also a member of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the legacy political parties that merged to form APC.

In a statement in Abuja, the group’s national coordinator, Aganaba Johnson, described Abbas as the right person for legislative job.

Tasking other Speakership aspirants “not to rock the boat but work for the success of the party and larger interest of the nation,” the group further urged; “the President-elect and the party leadership to resist all forms of pressure and blackmail in allowing supremacy of the party decision to stand.”

“We appealed to all the aggrieved aspirants to the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives to accept the endorsement of Tajudeen Abass as the next Speaker as an act of God.

“There is no need to gang up against the anointed candidates and the party because the opposition is waiting in the wings to exploit your differences. Please, do not throw the party into disarray because of leadership positions.”

The statement further added that the same party leadership had given some of the aggrieved aspirants to hold one position or the other in the past.

Commending the President-elect and the Abdullahi Adamu-led APC NWC, the group added that the choice of Abbas “is a a well thought out decision in the best interest of the country.

“In the history of House of Representatives in Nigeria, Abbas has the highest Bills of 78 in the 9th Assembly, he has the 3rd highest Bills of 43 in the 8th Assembly and 20 of these Bills have been assented to.

“The country must endeavour to sustain the successes recorded in the outgoing 9th Assembly whereby there are tangible achievements due to the cordial relationship between the executive and legislative arms.

“We don’t want situation capable of igniting confusion and turbulence in the parliament, which may ultimately affect the cordial environment that the legislature needs to function” the national coordinator said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Emeka Nnamani, Labour Party (LP) Rep-elect for Aba South/Aba North said the the South- East will speak with one voice in the election of the speaker of the House.

The Abia State lawmaker said this when he spoke with newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, saying that in spite of being elected on different platforms, the zone would speak with one voice and provide block votes.

“People will ordinary think the 10th National Assembly is going to be chaotic and dramatic, but I can assure you that it is going to be interesting and the legislature is not going to be a rubber stamp.

“And it will not lose its independence. The 10th Assembly is going to be quite interesting and intriguing because of the mixture of people from different parties and platforms that have arrived for the legislative business,” he said.

Nnamani said for the first time the South-East which had been noted in the past as having issues of not being together at all times had changed the narrative.

He added the the lawmakers-elect from the region would speak with one voice in the choice of who became the speaker of the 10th national assembly.

Speaking on Rep. Tajudeen Abbas, the APC preferred candidate for the speakership, he described him as an insightful personality who had the intellectual capacity to lead the 10th Assembly.

Nnamani endorsed Rep. Ben Kalu(APC-Abia) for the Deputy Speakership of the 10th Assembly because he was a sound minded person.