Oshiomhole: The only house of reps position APC isn’t interested in is minority leader

Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress  (APC), says his party is interested in all the leadership positions in the house of reps except that of minority leader. 

Speaking at a meeting of the party’s national working committee (NWC ) with elected APC members in the house of representatives, Oshiomhole said the APC which has overwhelming majority in the lower chamber of the national assembly will use its numbers to elect the leadership of the house.

Oshiomhole said all chairmen of the committees except that of public account, which is statutorily reserved for the opposition, must be occupied by the APC members.

The meeting took place at the Yar’Adua Center in Abuja.

“We have the numbers to produce speaker and we will produce the speaker who must be a member of APC . We have the number and we will use the number to produce the deputy speaker who must be a member of APC,” he said

“So, I will expect you bear in mind that we are one family bonded together as shown in our broom  with a sheer commitment to take Nigeria out of condition we found it in 2015.

“You have the numbers and we would use those numbers to ensure that we have a leadership that command trust and respect of all the members of house of representatives.

“I  think the only position that we are not interested in is minority leader. We will not share power in house of representatives and the leadership must ensure that critical committees are chaired only by APC members . If Nigerian people wanted opposition to be the chairmen of committees, they would have voted for them.”

The chairman said the party is working on a zoning arrangement for the leadership of the national assembly will emerge.

He said the NWC would consult with President Muhammadu Buhari on zoning.

“We will carry out consultation with President Muhammadu Buhari and all the leaders of the party and reflect the reality of appointees as reflected in our constitution which recognised  the geo political region of our country so that we will work out a sensible zoning formula that seems to carry everybody along and give people chances to demonstrate  their capacity and capability,” he said.

TheCable had reported that Buhari has given the nod to Ahmad Lawan as senate president and Femi Gbajabiamila as speaker of the house of representatives.