Dogara denies joining speakership race

Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the house of representatives, has denied reports that he had joined the race to retain his position as speaker in the 9th Assembly.

There are reports that Dogara is interested to become the presiding officer of the ninth lower legislative chamber.

But in a statement on Sunday, Turaki Hassan, his media aide, said the “fake news” is being circulated by “mischief makers.”

Hassan said his principal would not be interested in “hide and seek” games.

“Our attention has been drawn to stories published in some national dailies to the effect that His Excellency, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has joined the race for the Speakership of the 9th Assembly,” he said.

“We wish to distance the Speaker from the fake news being pushed and circulated by mischief makers and enemies of progress who want to create confusion in order to benefit and feast on it.

“The Rt. Hon. Speaker has always spoken for himself and would not be engaged in childish hide and seek games. When he contested in 2015 he openly sought for support and openly canvassed for votes and there is nothing stopping him from doing so now if that were the case.

“We have official  channels of communication and we have not issued any statement to that effect.

“We urge members of the public to totally disregard the fake news being published about the Speaker.”