Reps Grills Speakership Aspirants, Gbajabiamila Absent

Aspirants to the speakership position of the 9th House of Representatives were all sized up via individual presentation before opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lawmakers in Abuja.

At the event organised to afford the aspirants the opportunity to present their plans and manifestos with a view to soliciting for the caucus support, all aspirants except Femi Gbajabiamila were present.

As at 6:45 pm on Wednesday, the aspirant who was said to have embarked on a campaign tour of the South East and South-South was yet to make his appearance.

A source privy to the inner workings of the caucus told Daily Independent that Gbajabiamila, having been held somewhere in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital has been making frantic efforts to delay the event to enable him attend.

The source disclosed that having realised that the process had commenced without him, the Lagos born House majority leader asked that all the caucus members including newly elected ones who came from different parts of the country be made to stay another night at the prestigious hotel as he was ready to foot the bills of their accommodation and flight tickets.

The source lamented that all aspirants including Gbajabiamila were duly informed of the event, but he chose to travel, describing his request as “arrogant and condescending”.

Also speaking to our correspondent on the matter, one of the ranking PDP members and organizers of the event, Tajudeen Yusuf (PDP, Kogi), said “all aspirants were duly consulted and agreed to the days between Tuesday and Wednesday”.

“We have a basket of votes and we said to them, come and tell us why you want us to support you and they all agreed to the Tuesday–Wednesday dates for the presentation.”

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