One House: Gbajabiamila Apologises To Dep Speaker Ihedioha Over Bias Allegation

The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, on Thursday, apologised to the House for accusing the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, of bias during the previous day’s plenary.

Mr. Gbajabiamila, who is also the leader of the All Progressive Congress Caucus in the green chamber, had on Wednesday said the APC lawmakers would no longer recognize Mr. Ihedioha as deputy speaker.

He accused Mr. Ihedioha, a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, of taking sides by favouring his party, instead of being the deputy speaker of the entire House.

“What you saw today (Wednesday) is yet another indication of what the PDP has brought on our country”, he had said at a press conference after he led APC lawmakers to stage a walk out of the chamber.

“We have a deputy speaker who has never hidden his ‎partisanship. He has always taken sides with the PDP, compared to the speaker (Tambuwal), who sees himself as the Speaker of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

Members of the House had erupted in a row following the manner Mr. Ihedioha, who was presiding, handled the motion on military deployment during the elections, which lawmakers of both major parties disagreed on.

While the APC members backed the motion that soldiers should not be deployed during polls as affirmed by various court judgments, their PDP colleagues stood against it on the grounds that it was a matter before the courts.

The APC lawmakers had walked out of the chamber in protest.

However, at Thursday’s session, presided over by the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, the minority leader withdrew his earlier allegation against Mr. Ihedioha.

“I withdraw that‎ portion where I called him the deputy speaker of a political party,” he said. “We should be accommodating of each other as a House”, he told his colleagues.