By EricJames Ochigbo
House of Representatives members-elect from the opposition parties have resolved to produce the Speaker of the 10th Assembly.
The members-elect, drawn from seven political parties made their stands known after an emergency meeting in Abuja on Friday.
Following the outcome of last Saturday’s rerun elections, the membership of opposition parties is now 182.
This is one vote more than the statutory benchmark of 181 votes required to elect the speaker of the house.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting, an Anambra Rep.-elect, Victor Ogene said that members-elect from the opposition parties are now the ‘greater majority’ given their numbers.
He said Section 50(1)(b) of the Constitution says “there shall be a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.”
According to him, besides the issue of ranking, every member is entitled to run for the office of Speaker, regardless of political party affiliation.
“We are primed to contest the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 10th National Assembly.
“Already, there are permutations to promote a Speakership candidate from the South-South geo-political zone, and a Deputy Speaker from the North-West,” he said.
Ogene said that the issue of zoning being canvassed by stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress (APC) is not known to law.
According to him, zoning is permitted, as an intra-party solution to the sharing of political offices in the country.
The member-elect said that seeking to enforce such on the generality of members would be tantamount to affronting Section 50 of the Nigerian Constitution.
He said that political parties must not always use the National Assembly as “guinea pigs for zoning fancies