For the umpteenth time, the leaders of the seven opposition parties, ’Greater Majority’ in the 10th House of Representatives by Honourable Frederick Agbedi on Monday again dismissed report making the rounds on the adoption of the preferred candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the positions of Speaker and Deputy, Honourable Tajudeen Abbas and Hon. Benjamin Kalu.
The pronouncement was made by the leader of the coalition, Fredrick Agbedi (PDP-Bayelsa) during an enlarged meeting held at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, attended by more than 150 members-elect drawn from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Labour Party (LP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), African Democratic Party (ADP) and the Youth Progressive Party (YPP).
This is coming barely 22 days to the inauguration of the 10th Assembly.
He said the caucus had not adopted anybody for the office of the presiding officers, adding that such would only take place when an agreement was reached and it would be a collective decision.
He said that other critical stakeholders would be consulted in arriving at a decision that would be a win for the group.
He said: “Let me quickly say that if we must do the right thing, if we must actually represent our people, we need to be guided and to be guided, we mean that we need to interact with our leaders in our constituencies.
“We need to interact with our colleagues from the various States.
“We need to interact with our Party stakeholders and all that in arriving at a decision that will be well for us.
“Your Conveners and other Leaders have not either on your behalf or for you adopted anybody for the office of presiding officers.
“That will only take place when that agreement is reached by all of us. That decision will be our collective decision.
“But I am even saying before we get to that decision, we are going to ensure that take for example, I come from Bayelsa State, I should be able to speak with my governors, party leaders so that whatever I key into is with the understanding that my State Leaders are on the same page with.
“And that’s what we expect of all of us to do. So, that we don’t ambush Mr. A or Mr. B.
“Therefore, I want to assure you that we will lead ourselves to arrive at a collective decision.
“We have also resolved to have Coordinators who are going to meet at their different State level.
“We will also have Coordinators who will also work at the zonal level in collating decision that they will finally come up with after due consultation.
“And that’s why we have invited all of us to this meeting, so that we all know who and who will coordinate our States and also who will coordinate our zones.
“So that, we give the responsibility back to you, interact, consult and then chose the direction to go.
“In all the interactions we have made, our Leaders have authoritatively told us that they have not given any mandate to their Members-elect to identify with Mr. A or Mr. B.
“The only mandate and directive they gave to our people is to network, interact and give them the feedback.
“And at the appropriate time, decisions will be made, agreements will be reached, alliances formed and then as minorities, we will be doing some sort of agreement as to what direction to go.
“So, as I stand here, I have not been given any mandate by my party or governor as to what to do.”
He added that the Caucus would have a retreat at Uyo, Bayelsa State, which will be attended by all the Opposition Parties.
“We have visited the PDP Acting National chairman, the Labour Party Presidential Candidate and the NNPP and they have all agreed to speak to us.
He said the Caucus had been able to show that it was a strong minority group and would deepen democracy and stand up for Nigerians.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
