Femi Gbajabiamila, the speaker of the House of Representatives, has on Wednesday, July 3, 2019, announced Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, representing Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency, Delta State as the new Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.
The announcement of Hon. Ndudi as the House Minority leader, followed the submission of a letter to Speaker by the Minority Caucus in the House of Reps, comprising all elected House members of all the other opposition parties, dated July 2, 2019, in which the members of the caucus endorsed Hon. Ndudi Elumelu as their choice for the position.
The letter by the Minority caucus, which reflected the robust and commendable bipartisanship and Legislative independence of the elected House members, also endorsed three other Honourable members of the House namely; Hon. Toby Okechukwu, Hon. Gideon Gwani and Hon. Adesegun Adekoya, for the offices of the Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip respectively.
According to the letter, the endorsement of the Minority principle officers of the House, was in pursuant to Order 7 Rule 8 of the Standing Rules of the House of Representatives.
The Minority Caucus in the correspondence which was made available to the media further stated that they are convinced of the character, integrity and experience of the endorsed members, to discharge the duty of the offices, emphasizing that the action was in line with the House Rules, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in the best interest of the Minority Caucus.
They equally pledged that the Caucus will continue to do everything within its capacity, to promote and respect the interest of the various parties, even as they promised to use the instrumentality of the legislation to ensure a fair deal for all Nigerians.
The Speaker then read the letter to the House and the endorsed candidates by the Minority Caucus were announced as the new principal officers. The announcement by the Speaker was loudly cheered by members.
Recall that though the PDP is the largest minority party in the House, a breakdown of the members to date shows that the ruling All Progressives Congress has 190 members, the Minority Peoples Democratic Party has 151 members, while other parties have 19 members.
Meanwhile the newly elected Minority Principal offices of the House of Representatives and members of the minority Caucus across party lines, led by the Minority Leader, Rt. Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, has already paid a courtesy call to the Chairman of the PDP, Board of Trustees, BOT, Senator Walid Jubrin, who congratulated them on their new responsibilities and charged them to always put the interest of Nigeria first, even as they endeavour to deepen and strengthen the Democratic process, as members and leaders of the National Assembly.
