Speaker: Jonathan summons PDP leaders over Reps ‘rebellion’

President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has called for a meeting of the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party over the resolve of the members of the House of Representatives to disregard the party’s zoning arrangement for picking a new speaker.
The meeting which will also have other top PDP members in attendance, will hold at the Presidential Villa on Sunday.
Its main goal is to analyse the implication of the ‘rebellion’ by the lawmakers and find ways to make them tow the line of the party on the zoning of the speakership to the South-West.
The PDP leadership had nine days ago ceded the office of the Speaker to the zone (South-West) and the Senate Presidency to the North-Central.
While there has been no much fuss over the Senate Presidency, groups in the House of Representatives have consistently said the decision on who would become the speaker would be taken on the floor of the House.
On Tuesday, the House members took concrete steps to signpost their seriousness by opting to adopt open secret balloting in the electing the speaker instead of electronic voting.
THE PUNCH had gathered exclusively that the decision by the legislators was to check the imposition of candidates on them by the PDP and its godfathers through zoning .
Our correspondent gathered that Vice-President Namadi Sambo had met with PDP members in the House on Monday but no agreement was recorded at the meeting.
The Monday meeting was said to have been brokered by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Alhaji Bayero Nafada.
Sambo, it was learnt, used the occasion to appeal to members of the House, not to disgrace the PDP with their resolve not to abide by its zoning formula.
A member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “We were told that a bad precedent would be laid if we did not follow the party’s decision. We listened with rapt attention but did not make any commitment.”
But a member of the NWC, who spoke with our correspondent on Wednesday, confirmed that the President had invited the NWC members to the Villa for a meeting.
He added that the NWC members had discussed the lawmakers posture on zoning at their meeting in Abuja.
The source said, “We will meet the President on Sunday and see how we can salvage the matter, which is becoming embarrassing to the leadership of the party and the Presidency.
“It has never happened that the party, which produced these men as lawmakers, will give a directive and its members will move against such directive.
“If we say this is what we want, we expect these young men and women to follow the directive given by the party. We hope to iron this out on Sunday.”
But a member of the House said he and his colleagues had plan to defeat whatever the outcome of Sunday meeting was.
He claimed that their first plan was to make the Deputy Whip of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, the speaker and the Chief Whip, Emeka Ihedioha, his deputy .
The legislator added that if the plan failed, the House would then vote for a lawmaker from Oyo State, Mulikat Akande-Adeola instead of Muraina Ajibola, who was endorsed by the leadership of the party and its South-West chapter.
Our correspondent also learnt on Wednesday that the former Chairman of the House Committee on Power, Mr. Ndidi Elumelu, is been considered for House Leader.
When contacted, Elumelu said he would gladly accept the post. He added, however, that the House was not planning to work against the directive of the party in choosing its speaker.
By Olusola Fabiyi                Courtesy Of: Punch