The race for the Speakership of the House of Representatives assumed a new twist on Tuesday, as the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has vowed to push for the arrest of one of the top contenders, Femi Gbajabiamila if he fails to honour a court summons on the eve of the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly.
The Coalition through one of its members, the Action Peoples Party (APP), had asked an FCT court to disqualify Gbajabiamila from the speakership race over alleged perjury.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Spokesperson of the Coalition and National Chairman of APP, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, displayed documents to journalists in Abuja indicating that the court had already ordered Gbajabiamila to appear on Monday, June 10 2019, a day to the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly and election of Presiding Officers of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
According to the CUPP Spokesperson, while the Supreme Court of Georgia, United States in 2007 unanimously convicted and sentenced Gbajabiamila as a legal practitioner to 36 months disbarment for defrauding his client, he lied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (IINEC) that he had never been convicted for any crime.
“The criminal case is instituted because in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and most recently in 2018 preparatory to the 2019 election, Femi Gbajabiamila in answer to questions contained in the INEC Form CF001 filed with the Independent National Electoral Commission gave false evidence and information on oath to the Commission when he denied and claimed that he had never been indicted by a tribunal, court or administrative panel of fraud or dishonesty.
“Yet it is the finding of the Supreme Court of the States of Georgia which in a unanimous decision found Femi Gbajabiamila guilty and sentenced him to 36 months disbarment as against the punishment of life time time disbarment because Femi Gbaja pleaded guilty and repaid the money to his client. This repayment was done three years after he ran away with the money,” Ugochinyere said.
BusinessDay reports that President Muhammadu Buhari and the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) had endorsed Gbajabiamila for the Speakership of the House of Representatives.
But Ugochinyere described the endorsements as morally wrong, even as he called on members-elect of the House of Representatives not to elect the contender as Speaker of the Ninth House of Representatives.
The opposition politician also threw the weight of the Coalition behind secret ballot system in the election of Presiding Officers of the National Assembly.
This, he argued, will give lawmakers-elect the liberty to vote their conscience without fear.
Hr described proponents of open ballot system as haters of the country’s emerging democracy.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
