Ahead of the June 10 proclamation of the 9th National Assembly, Femi Gbajabiamila, aspirant for the position of the House of Representatives has picked Ahmed Wase as his running mate.
Wase (APC, Plateau), the current Deputy Majority Leader of the House was also contesting for the position of the Speaker until the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC anointed Gbajabiamila, the House Majority Leader for the office.
Abdulmumin Jibril (APC, Kano), Director- General of Gbajabiamila Speakership Campaign Organisation announced this Tuesday in Abuja while briefing journalists said the decision was arrived at following wide consultations.
Jibril stated that, “Wase is going to run as the Deputy Speaker. We are going to vote and by the grace of God elect Femi as Speaker and we are going to elect Wase as Deputy Speaker. I hope this clarifications and this categorical statements will bring that matter to rest and it is not a single decision.
“It is a decision that involves an extensive consultations. We talked to ourselves, consulted with our elders, with our leaders and consulted extensively with Members that are going to constitute the 9th Assembly and we arrived at that position that we are putting forward Femi and Wase as our team”.
Expressing optimism for his principal victory, Jibril said, “we also wish to inform you that at this moment we have the numbers to win the election on the 10th of June.
“In the last six weeks since we started our activities we have applied different kinds of methods to check our numbers, to weigh our numbers and all the instances where we applied the different options that are scientifically verifiable, we have arrived at a very comfortable number that we win us election.
“The last was the exercise that we did which is still ongoing and even at that we have all the numbers that we require. The approach that we we have adopted is for members to confirm in writing who they are going to vote and we are here to let you know that we have the numbers correct to win the election. Interestingly, we have large number of Members from the PDP and other opposition parties that have indicated written interest to be with us”.
Dispelling rumours that Gbajabiamila’s god father(Ahmed Tinubu) is planning to hijack the 9th Assembly, the Director General said, “essentially, it synonymous to mentors. I can assure you that almost every politician in Nigeria has a mentor and it means that he has a god father.
“So if you are saying that it should be a minus to Femi because he has a mentor or a god father you are only telling us that I am not comfortable with Femi’s god father bring another person god father to control the National Assembly”.
James Kwen, Abuja
