There has been an ongoing tension on the floor of the House of Representatives as four members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) took over the seats reserved for the leadership of Minority Parties, newly appointed by the speaker.
The faction of Hon. Kingsley Chinda who was favored by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) also has Hon. Chukwuma Onyema as Deputy Minority Leader; Hon. Yakubu Barde as Minority Whip and Hon. Muraina Ajibola as Deputy Chief Whip after holding a brief meeting in Conference Room 1 ahead of plenary session, resolved to take over the four front roll seats reserved for the principal officers of the Minority Parties.
Why the struggle was on going, Hon. Gogo Bright (PDP-Rivers) was said to have attempted to snatch the mace according to the Ad-hoc Committee on Ethics and Privileges
According Benjamin Kalu (APC-Benue) who raised Order 6 on Privileges noted that the Legislative and Privileges of 2004 especially section 19(b), expressed his disappointment towards some top ranking members on the floor……according to him he said ………“I am not one of the ranking members but one of the first timer, noting that he was traumatized by what transpired in the House on Wednesday,”
He also noted that “ranking members respected so much in person of Hon. Gogo Bright went for the Mace, adding that Mace supposed to be on the upper bracket.”
The whole drama began when the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, was said to have substitute names submitted by the minority party PDP with another preferred choice of his. According to Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP gave the names of their choice candidate as Hon. Kingsley Chinda (Minority Leader), Hon. Chukwuka Onyema (Deputy Minority Leader), Hon. Yakubu Barde (Minority Whip) and Hon. Muraina Ajibola (Deputy Minority Whip).
