National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has cautioned the favoured candidate Tajudeen Abass not to be carried away by his endorsement.
Adamu gave the admonition on Tuesday when the aspirant came to meet the national leadership of the party.
Checks revealed that the elected lawmakers of the House of Representatives who went with Abbas and Benjamin Kalu to the APC national secretariat were members of the APC, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Labour Party (LP).
But Senator Adamu advised Abbas not to be misled by the number of lawmakers associating with him openly as he could be deceived to assume that he already has the majority on his side.
The APC national chairman insisted on further consultations ahead of the June 13 date.
He said: “I want to make one correction so that we will not be misrepresented. A quite number of you have referred to Honourable Abbas at the Speaker. Please, please, he is one of the aspirants. He will become a speaker on the day of the proclamation. The laws guiding that office are very clear, he will earn that on the day of the proclamation by the President and Commander-in-Chief. The Clerk to the National Assembly will conduct the election, there is no option than the election. When he comes out of that election and they raised his hand and when he is sworn in as the Speaker, that nomenclature becomes most appropriate.
“I urge you to continue with your consultations. After reporting to the National Working Committee (NWC) the discussions we had with the President-elect and leaders like the Vice President-elect, the Senate President, the Speaker, my humble self as the National Chairman of the Party, my deputy north, deputy south and the National Secretary of the party, I reported our deliberations. It was clear in our declaration that there is a need for further and better consultations so that we can go safely to the Labour Room and deliver safely. We need safe delivery of the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly. Have a safe delivery of the baby. I on behalf of my colleagues wish you the best of luck.”
Earlier in his remarks, Tajudeen Abbas who thanked the APC NWC for ratifying his endorsement done by the National Caucus pleaded with the party’s national secretariat to also appeal to aggrieved aspirants to withdraw from the race and offer their support.
“I want to thank the NWC for the role you (NWC) played in the emergence of myself and my colleague as the candidate of the party for the June 13th election of the leadership of the House of Representatives. We want to thank you and we want to impress on you that you have chosen the right people.
“We will do everything humanly possible to protect the interest of the party, to protect the interest of the government and to protect the interest of the Nigerian populace.
“You can take it to the market Mr. Chairman that we are at together.
“I want to urge you Mr. Chairman and members of the NWC that if tomorrow you have done one leg of your job, that is the endorsement of the people that will represent the party in the next dispensation.
“The next is to come all out, to support, to encourage, to convince every member who has a vote to come and vote for your candidate, come June 13.
“Finally, Mr Chairman, I also want to urge you as our leader, the leader of all the contestants both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, we are all your children, and we want to urge you to use the position God has given you and all the members of NWC to do whatever you can to call all our co-contestants to the table, we are more than willing to at least sit down and agree on the mutual basis what we need to do to move the National Assembly forward.”
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