National Assembly Crisis: Tambuwal Fails Peace Talks With Gbajabiamila And Dogara

According to The Punch, the peace committee chaired by Aminu Tambuwal, the governor of Sokoto, failed to resolve the leadership tussle in the caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the House of Representatives. 
The source says that after the Tambuwal committee met with the group led by Dogara, and that of a former Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, the crisis caused by the sharing of four principal offices remained unresolved.
It states that Gbajabimaila group at its meeting with Tambuwal insisted that the
South-West should produce the Majority Leader, North-West  – Deputy Leader; North-East  – Chief Whip while Deputy Whip should be chosen from South-South.
It also notes that Gbajabiamila refused to head the AdHoc Committee on Constitution Review.
In their turn, the Dogara group states that federal character and zonal balancing must be reflected in the sharing of the positions in such a way that no zone of the country would be left out.
On Wednesday an anonymous National Assembly official said: “It was this same position that they presented before the Tambuwal committee last night”.
Abdulmumin Jibrin, who is the Dogara group spokesman, noted that at the meeting with Tambuwal, the group agreed to concede the House leader to the Gbajabiamila group provided that neither the South-West nor the North-East would take the position.
He added that in the event the Gbajabiamila group did not accept the concession saying that all the APC caucuses in the House would go for an election to decide who would become the majority leader.
The spokesman also disclosed that similar elections would be conducted to fill the three other positions in line with the provisions of the relevant rules of the House.
“The entire APC members would hold an election to elect the House leaders. If someone says he has 174 members, fine; let us hold an election and see if he actually has that majority he claims,” Jibrin said.
The group led by Gbajabiamila has also confirmed that the group indeed met with Tambuwal and made its position known that party supremacy must prevail.
“To the best of our knowledge, no counter-offer has been made to the APC Loyalists’ group after her first meeting with Tambuwal peace committee, wherein the APC loyalists clearly stated that in line with party supremacy resolution reached at the last APC NEC meeting, the position of the party on Femi Gbajabiamila as the House Leader is non-negotiable,” the group said.