But the concession said to have been offered by Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his group came with a caveat: the nominee for the post of House leader should be from any zone other than the North-east and South-west regions that have already produced the Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively.
Before the latest concession, the Speaker and his loyalists in the House had objected to ceding the position to the group led by Gbajabiamila who lost out during the intriguing contest for the leadership of the lower legislative chamber last month.
The concession followed a meeting, which was held in on Tuesday night between Mr. Dogara, some members of the House, and the immediate past Speaker and current governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal in Abuja.
The meeting, held as part of the peace efforts initiated by the APC governors, was the second leg by Tambuwal who had earlier met with the Gbajabiamila group to seek a common ground for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in the National Assembly.
However, the Gbajabiamila-led lawmakers have rejected the offer by Dogara, especially the condition on which zone can produce the House Leader.
The group, in a statement issued yesterday by Hon. Rufai Chachangi rejecting the deal, said no agreement had been reached on the matter, as Tambuwal was yet to get back to them.
“We the 174 APC Loyalists group of the House are aware that there was a private discussion between Gov. Aminu Tambuwal and President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday evening at the State House.
“We also aware that Gov. Tambuwal briefed the press that there would be a meeting between him and Speaker Dogara’s group the same day.
“To the best of our knowledge, no counter-offer has been made to the APC Loyalists group after her first meeting with the Tambuwal peace committee wherein the APC loyalists clearly stated that in line with the party supremacy resolution reached at the last APC NEC meeting, the position of the party on Femi Gbajabiamila as the House Leader was not negotiable,” he said.
He said the argument of ensuring that the federal character principle prevails in the distribution of principal offices in the National Assembly does not hold water, as that could not be sustained legally.
“We understand that the Dogara group is now playing the zoning card after same group had hitherto before the speakership election of June 9th, 2015 rejected the zoning formula of the party prior to the mock election.
“Interestingly, the six geopolitical zones in the country are not recognised by the constitution. But if they wish to play the zoning card, then the Senate and House cannot be headed by the North,” Chachangi pointed out.
He argued that the issue of the South-east being denied a principal post in the House was “hogwash”.
“We have respect for people of the South-east but we cannot hold brief for a zone that produced only two ‘fresh’ APC members. The issue of exclusion of the South-east does not exist; rather they are not qualified to be principal officers of the House.
“For emphasis and clarity, under the standing rules of the House, Order 7 Rule 37 states that ‘only members with cognate legislative experience as members of the National Assembly shall be eligible for appointment as principal officers’.
“We are also surprised that a group led by Speaker Dogara who is a lawyer is talking about court action presumably instigated by him based on federal character, when a fresh law school graduate knows that the issue of federal character as enshrined in S.14 of the constitution is non-justiciable and of no legal consequence.
“In playing his mediatory role, the former House Speaker, Gov. Tambuwal agreed to take our position to the Dogara group for consideration and convene a joint meeting of both groups, which is yet to be convened as at Wednesday (yesterday) evening.
“So any purported decision reeled out to the public in the name of the National Assembly peace pact before the joint meeting is lopsided and not acceptable to the APC loyalists group.
“However, as a group that wants peace and a quick solution to the logjam in the House, the APC Loyalists group would equally subscribe to an election among the entire members of the APC House Caucus where all members, irrespective of zones, would exercise their right to elect their principal officers,” he said.
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