10th House: Minority caucus denies endorsing any Reps speakership aspirant

The minority caucus for the yet-to-be inaugurated 10th House of Representatives said it has not endorsed any aspirant for the office of speaker as reported in some media platforms.

The caucus also known as ‘greater majority’ going by its collective number of 182 member-elect across minority parties said this in a statement signed by Ali Isa, secretary of the group on Saturday.

Isa said the caucus only met with Femi Gbajabiamila, the outgoing speaker of the House and Tajudeen Abbas, the All Progressives Congress (APC) “anointed” speakership candidate who also engaged the group and made his own presentation to solicit the support of its members to work with him just like the other aspirants did.

The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a fictitious report circulating in both conventional and unconventional media circles that the minority caucuses have endorsed a candidate for the Office of Speaker House of Representatives.

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“We hereby use this opportunity to categorically state that at no time did the minority caucuses endorse any one, and we wish to add that as part of our ongoing consultations with all relevant stakeholders, which also includes receiving presentations from all the aspirants for Speakership, the group merely met with Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the outgoing Speaker of the House of Reps, and Hon. Tajudeen Abbas who also engaged our Committee and made his own presentation to solicit the support of members of our caucuses to work with him just like the other aspirants did.

“At no time did we make any announcement endorsing anyone for any office, and neither did we promise such endorsement to any aspirant or their proxies.

“Consequently, we hereby call on our members and the general public to disregard the rumours circulating around that we have made a choice. It is fake news.

“Our caucuses will only make our choices known after we have concluded all necessary consultations, and our choice will ultimately be based on what will be acceptable to the generality of Nigerians.

“We also want to inform members of our caucuses that the retreat in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State has been postponed to 31st May – 3rd June 2023. Members are expected to indicate interest and forward their names to the secretariat before Wednesday May 24th 2023,” the statement reads.