Opposition parties for the incoming 10th National Assembly, Monday, said they would no longer contest for the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the incoming 10th National Assembly.
It will be recalled that the opposition parties otherwise called the “Greater Majority” had said penultimate week it was bouyed up by their numerical strength of 183 to contest for the presiding officers.
Last week, a 13-man committee chaired by Hon. Nicholas Mutu and Hon. Victor Ogene as the secretary was set up to screen would-be aspirants.
But at a meeting of the minority caucus on Monday in Abuja meant to present the report of the committee, Ogene who is also one of the Spokesmen of the opposition parties said that no one presented himself/herself for the offices.
He said: “I wish to report on behalf of the Chairman of the Committee and the entire members, as at the end of the period given to undertake that assignment, no member of the minority caucus better known as the Greater Majority stepped forward to contest for the role of presiding officers.
“Deductively, this means that we are not bidding for those two positions. However, we remain united as one caucus of the opposition parties.
“We did also meet with those aspiring for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives but because we’ve not briefed our members, I will not go into details of our interface. But I can assure you, everyone that put him or herself running for the position appears to be qualified”.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties as exclusively reported by Vanguard in its Monday edition had split into two factions.
While Ogene’s faction led by Hon. Fred Agbedi was briefing its members at a location, other members of the minority caucus led by Hon. Idu Igariwey were also meeting at another location at about the same time.
The outcome of the meeting was yet to be made available as at press time.
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