By Rapheal
Copyright thesun
From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The crack in the minority caucus of the House of Representatives has deepened with opposition lawmakers summoning an emergency meeting over a suit reportedly filed against them by the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda.
The opposition lawmakers recently moved against the minority leadership for allegedly not representing their interest well amongst other issues.
The meeting, which is coming ahead of the resumption of the House, tomorrow, Daily Sun gathered, would take far reaching decisions on the leadership of the Caucus.
Order 7(14) of the 11th edition of the House Standing Orders empowers both the majority and minority caucuses to change their leadership after duly notifying the House.
Specifically, it states: “After due notice to the House, the Majority Party and the Minority Party may change their Leader and Whip, Deputy Leader and Deputy Whip, provided that the change is made by majority of the members of the parties in the House themselves.”
The minority leadership consists of Chinda, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); the Minority Whip, Ali JC Isa, also from the PDP; Deputy Minority Leader, Ali Madaki from the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Deputy Minority Whip, George Ozodinobi, from the Labour Party (LP).
Daily Sun gathered that the opposition lawmakers, who also accused the minority leader of not calling for a meeting of the minority caucus for about two years, had planned to move against the minority leadership on September 23, when the National Assembly, was originally scheduled to resume from its annual recess, before the resumption was rescheduled.
Nonetheless, Chinda has reportedly filed a suit before a Federal High in Abuja to stall his removal. The suit had the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, the Clerk of the National Assembly as well as opposition political parties.
The embattled minority leader, in the court documents dated September 15, stated that the PDP caucus in the House was plotting his removal because of his close relationship with Minister of the Federal Capital Territory( FCT), Nyesom Wike.
However, the leadership of the various opposition party caucus in their reaction to the suit, yesterday, summoned an emergency meeting of all opposition party members to discuss the suit and any other business relating to the minority lawmakers.
The notice of the meeting sighted by Daily Sun was jointly signed by Agbedi Frederick, leader, PDP Caucus; Afam Victor Ogene, leader, LP Caucus; Peter Uzokwe Leader, Young Peoples Party (YPP) and Muktar Umar-Zakari for the NNPP Caucus.
The notice, which was directed to all minority members of the House read: “You are hereby invited to an emergency meeting to discuss recent developments in the minority leadership, particularly to review the lawsuit instituted by Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, against all members of minority parties in the 10th House of Representatives.”