10th Speaker: We didn’t endorse Tajudeen - Minority caucus

By Christiana Ekpa

The Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives has distanced itself from the rumour that it has endorsed Tajudeen Abass as the House of Representatives Speaker for the 10th National Assembly.

The caucus’ secretary, Ali Isa, in a statement, asked members and the general public to disregard the rumour, even as he acknowledged that the caucus met with Abass, the preferred candidate of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of ongoing consultations with stakeholders in the House on the issue relating to the selection of the speaker.

“It is fake news. Our caucus will only make our choices known after we have concluded all necessary consultations, and our choice will ultimately be based on what will be acceptable to the generality of Nigerians.

“We hereby use this opportunity to categorically state that at no time did the Minority Caucus endorse any one, and we wish to add that as part of our ongoing consultations with all relevant stakeholders, which also includes receiving presentations from all the aspirants for speakership, the group merely met with Femi Gbajabiamila, the outgoing Speaker of the House of Reps, and Tajudeen Abbas, who also engaged our committee and made his own presentation to solicit the support of members of our caucus to work with him just like the other aspirants did.

“At no time did we make any announcement endorsing anyone for any office, and neither did we promise such endorsement to any aspirant or their proxies. He disclosed that members of the caucus would embark on a retreat to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, starting from May 31 to June 3, 2023”, he said.

Similarly, the members of the G7 Speakership aspirants of the 10th House of Representatives met with members of the minority caucus of the lower legislative chamber.

The group, comprising the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase, Muktar Betara, Sada Soli, Aminu Jaji, Yusuf Adamu Jaji and Miriam Onuoha promised the caucus that they would come up with a consensus candidate soon.

The group led by Fred Agbedi reiterated their commitment to work with the caucus tagged the

‘greater majority’ due to its 183 numerical strength in the green chamber.

Soli, who spoke during the parley, assured them of their unalloyed support, promising to present a consensus candidate to the greater majority.

Responding on behalf of the greater majority, Fred Agbedi thanked the G7 in seeing the greater majority as partners in progress for the growth of the 10th House of Representatives. He assured the G7 that the caucus has not endorsed any candidate, as it will work with all members elect of the minority to ensure that the 10th house has a speaker for all.

May 29: Kwankwaso, Peter Obi helped Tinubu become president – Deji Adeyanju

By Christiana Ekpa

Ahead of the May 29 inauguration of a new administration, the presidential candidates of the New Nigeria Peoples Party

(NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, and the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, have been accused of making Bola Tinubu the President-elect.

Deji Adeyanju, a sociopolitical activist, said Kwankwaso and Obi made

Tinubu president-elect by reducing Atiku’s votes.

Tweeting, Adeyanju said Obi went further by using religious bigotry to help Tinubu.

According to Adeyanju: “Tinubu will be president in 8 days. Kwankwaso and Obi made it possible by reducing their oga, Atiku’s votes.

Tinubu defeated Atiku, Obi and Kwankwaso during the last presidential election.

LP: Peter Obi never requested for seven weeks to to produce witnesses at tribunal

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

Labour Party (LP) has said the presidential candidate of the party, Peter Obi never requested for seven weeks to enable him present his witnesses contrary to some media reports on Sunday.

In a statement issued yesterday by the Head, Obi-Datti Media, Diran Onifade, which is titled ‘Misquotation of Peter Obi/LP Legal Counsel by Punch Newspapers’, the party said the report was a misrepresentation of what the Labour Party Counsel presented at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

The statement said “Our attention has been drawn to a misleading report in the Punch Newspaper of 20th May 2023, captioned “Give me seven weeks to produce witnesses, Obi tells Tribunal” which is a misrepresentation of what our Counsel presented yesterday, before the Election Petition Tribunal.

“Peter Obi did not ask the court to give him seven weeks to bring in his witnesses. He only implied he will be through with all 50 of them in seven weeks.

“In proposing his schedule of witnesses, Eme Awa Kalu, SAN leading the team in court, had told the court that Peter Obi and Labour Party would be presenting 50 witnesses and that these 50 witnesses, will require 7 weeks to present their evidence before the Tribunal.”

It said at no time did the

Counsel say that he required ‘Seven weeks to produce witnesses’ as misreported in the media, pointing out that the correct interpretation of what LP lawyers told the court unambiguously is that the presentation of its witnesses, from start to finish, will take seven weeks.

“We are not asking the court to wait for seven weeks before we bring in the first witness as the story tries to imply”, the statement by the party said.