NASS Crisis: Doguwa Decamps, Abandons Gbajabiamila, Accepts Dogara's Offer


In the House of Representatives a key member of the Femi Gbajabiamila’s camp Alhassan Ado Doguwa has accepted the offer of House leader, Daily Trust can report.
Doguwa, one of Gbajabiamila’s arrowheads for speaker before June 9, has been at the forefront of those insisting that the position of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the House principal officers must be adhered to. APC National Chairman John Oyegun had nominated Gbajabiamila for the position of House leader after he lost the speaker’s contest to Yakubu Dogara. The party also nominated Doguwa to be deputy House leader, Mohammed Tahir Monguno as chief whip and Pally Iriase as deputy chief whip. But Dogara ignored the party’s position, a development that led to chaos on the floor of the House on June 25, which forced the House to adjourn abruptly to initially July 21 and now to July 28. Dogara last week wrote to Oyegun where he proposed that the position of House leader should go to the North West, deputy House leader to North Central, chief whip to South South and deputy chief whip to South East. He cited federal character in making the proposal. Although members of the Loyalists Group, supporting Gbajabiamila had rejected Dogara’s proposal, lawmakers of the Consolidation Group, loyal to Dogara welcomed the development and went ahead to adopt Doguwa from Kano State as House leader, Buba Jibril from Kogi State as Deputy, Pally Iriase from Edo State as chief whip and Chika Okafor from Imo State as deputy chief whip. Even though he is seen to be fighting the party’s course, Doguwa confirmed to Daily Trust yesterday that he has accepted the offer but that he remains loyal to Gbajabiamila’s group. He said he would attend the group’s meeting scheduled to hold tomorrow and Sunday, where the issue will be discussed. Asked if he will attend the meeting, Doguwa said: “Of course I will attend. I am still a faithful member of the group and I am aware of the meeting. “But the fact is that my personal position will not change. I am of the view that our members should see reason, be in tune with realities on ground and accept this wonderful concession made by the Speaker’s group. We must be prepared to move forward.” A member of the Gbajabiamila’s camp Aliyu Sani Madaki told Daily Trust that as a group, they did not recognize the offer. “You know on a matter like this, it is very difficult to make an offer to an individual and then he rejects. But our insistence is based on principle and the position of the party. Whatever it is, we will decide as a group before resumption, hopefully at the weekend,” he said. A North West lawmaker told Daily Trust that Dogara has succeeded in dividing Gbajabiamila’s camp and that most of the lawmakers from the North West are backing Doguwa for the House leader’s position. “Members of Femi group from the northwest met yesterday, with two representatives from each northwest state. Actually, Dogara has succeeded in dividing the camp of Femi. Doguwa is now with Dogara camp and you know Doguwa has a sizable number of votes. “Kano and Jigawa alone have 34 members. Even though he did not address a press conference on that, but Doguwa has tilted towards Dogara,” he said. It was learnt that other lawmakers from Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi are seriously making a case for Doguwa. ‘Doguwa’s as House leader will stave off crisis in Reps’ Meanwhile, a member of the House, Ibrahim Baba told Daily Trust yesterday that in view of the number of concessions made by Dogara to the Gbajabiamila camp, there was no way the latter’s camp will foment any trouble when the lawmakers resume on Tuesday Asked whether the Gbajabiamila group was satisfied with Doguwa’s selection, Rep Baba said “The problem is that if we continue to remain on one issue, we would not make progress. But a member of the Gbajabiamila camp, Rep Muhammad Gudaji Kazaure said crisis may still rear its head if Dogara did not accept the party’s choices. “Dogara’s group agreed to cede the House leader position to Gbajabiamila group and has picked Alhassan Ado Doguwa, but the Femi group has refused to recognise Alhassan Doguwa. A meeting has now been called this Saturday and Sunday where we would discuss and take a position.

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