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| Femi Gbajabiamila |
The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, on Thursday held a marathon meeting with some newly-elected members of the House of Representatives behind closed doors.
Gbajabiamila later led the members-elect to address journalists.
The outgoing Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Mr Omofiok Luke, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said the members-elect endorsed the Majority Leader for the position of Speaker in the 9th National Assembly.
The members-elect were said to be 178, drawn from various political parties.
Luke said, “I am the Speaker of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and here with me are newly-elected members of the House of Representatives, and this is a conglomeration of people from different parties.
“I am of the Peoples Democratic Party. We have members of the All Progressives Congress here. We have members of the All Progressive Grand Alliance. We have people from the Action Alliance and we have people from the African Democratic Congress. It’s a multi-party arrangement.
“We decided to convene ourselves as newly-elected members of the House of Representatives to look at the emergence of the next leadership of the 9th Assembly.
“In doing so, we looked through the antecedents and credentials of those who are aspiring to lead the National Assembly. We acknowledge the fact that this country today; with the challenges that we have, we need a bipartisan approach to solve our problems.
“We need a man that has what it takes as reflected in his manifesto, to carry all parties along in resolving and solving the issues of Nigeria; the man who will not mortgage the independence of the legislature but at the same time would not engage the executive in unnecessary fisticuffs.
“We need a man who will build a good relationship between the executive and the legislature as well as between the legislature and the judiciary.
“We need man who will care about the welfare of Nigerians; a man who will put the interest of Nigeria above his personal interest; and a man who will put the interest of Nigeria above that of the party.”
He added, “We have found Femi Gbajabiamila as a man who has a capacity to lead the 9th National Assembly as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“We know that he is not going to let Nigerians down and we know and believe that he is not going to let us down and we know and believe that he is not going to let God down.”
Shortly after speaking with journalists, the members-elect resumed their meeting.
Some of those who attended the meeting were seen with a pack of Tecno F1 phone each, which some of them gave to their aides.
An aide to one of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was a souvenir shared at the meeting.
