Gbajabiamila survives removal plot by APC Reps

THE crises rocking the House of Representatives assumed a fresh dimension as there were moves yesterday, by scores of All Progressives Congress ( APC) members of the House of Representatives to oust the House Leader, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila from office.

The plot may not be unconnected with the decision by Gbajabiamila and scores of his APC loyalists group to boycott the inauguration of the 96 special and House standing committees held on Monday, this week.

Yesterday, members of the APC in the lower legislative chamber were hurriedly summoned to attend a caucus meeting in the House of Representatives wing of the hearing room 1, aimed at achieving the goal.

Unlike the positions of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House that requires two -third votes of members of the House to ensure impeachment, it is believed that all that is required to remove the House leader who is a nominee from among members of the majority APC is just majority votes in the event there are disagreement among members.

Prior to the parley, some of the APC lawmakers indeed exchanged text messages monday night canvassing the need to ensure the removal of the House Leader who was conspicuously absent when the 96 special and standing committees were inaugurated.

The circulated text messages accessed by the Guardian from one of the lawmakers in the House reads: “Honorable colleagues how long can we continue to condone the irresponsible efforts of the House Leader to derail the peace and unity of the House, is he the only Member in Nigeria? His absence at the special session today clearly shows his intentions and his unsuitability for this position.

“Enough is enough, it is time for change, Gbaja Must go! Join us in declaring a vote of no confidence in the House Leader! Members United For Change.”

The outcome of the caucus meeting which lasted for about an hour was not made public, but a member of the caucus who asked not to be named confirmed the plot to remove Gbajabiamila from office thus:‎ “It is true there was the plot to remove Gbajabiamila. I am sure you saw the text messages on him before the meeting. We were all there and when they noticed that the plot will fail, they changed the topic of discussion by saying they want us to reconcile our differences. That was how the plot failed.”

As a result, a scheduled press conference whereby the removal of Gbajabiamila from office would have been announced at about 11 a.m had to be called off after the closed-door meeting of the APC caucus member.

However, two of the members of the caucus – Herman Hembe, key loyalist of Dogara, and Magaji Aliyu Dau (APC:Jigawa) , did not conceal the disagreement amongst the APC in the House as they poured invective on one another on the issue just as eye -witness account even claim the hot verbal exchange degenerated into a situation where they smacked each other on the face.

Dau, a staunch member of the APC loyalists group in support of Gbajabiamila, denied having any physical contact with his counterpart from Benue state who is the chairman of the newly inaugurated House committee on the federal capital territory ( FCT) when contacted.