10th Assembly: Put APC on Its Toes, Damagum Charges PDP House Members-elect

•Group promises to respect APC zoning arrangements

Udora Orizu and Juliet Akoje in Abuja

Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June, the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Umar Damagum, has charged the party’s members-elect in the House of Representatives to put the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on their toes.

This was as a group of the members-elect across the eight political parties that won various seats in the National Assembly under the aegis of “Joint Task-10th Assembly” has said it would abide by the zoning formula of the ruling APC.

Speaking at a meeting with members-elect to formally welcome and congratulate them on their electoral victory in Abuja, yesterday evening, the national chairman said putting the ruling party on their toes was one of the ways of making them work for the country.

“You have a daunting task before you because of the state of the nation. You have been elected at a time when the country is no longer what we used to know. It has been bedeviled by so many vices and people are looking up to you to correct the rot.

“When you make laws, it is expected that you are helping the society and in act of making laws, you should be mindful of the fact that the society is no longer what you used to know and you have to be firm. You have to be loyal to your country first and then the party. Loyalty to the country, because it is only when you have a country that you can even exist as a lawmaker.

“Most of you that have spoken have been grateful to the party for giving you the platform to be here today. We don’t expect anything else from you rather than to be a loyal party member. Most of you will be concerned about the current situation of the party, it is always like that.

“When you have an election year, there will be a lot of crises. If you look at it from your primaries up to the time when you were elected, you have gone through a lot and I know the party is going through the same kind of situations. But one thing I want to assure you is that PDP has the mechanism to solve its own problems.

“The initiative you have taken upon yourself before we even called upon you to make this gathering possible is also one of reasons why I said we have the mechanism. You have done well. I have interacted with some of your leaders towards being at this gathering and I don’t expect any PDP member to be less in terms of that acumen and capacity.

“We have always been known to be full of capacity in terms of what we want to achieve. I don’t expect less from you. I want to reiterate like some of you have said here that this 10th Assembly should come and make sure that it gives the right opposition that is expected of you.

“I always have hope in the House of Representatives. I am not saying the Senate is not doing much but you are the people that are directly closer to the constituencies and much is expected of you and I hope that ours is going to be a joint credible opposition and we’ll give it to them. We’ll put them to task, we’ll put them on their toes to make sure that the right thing is done in this country because this is what need at this moment,” he said.

Earlier, convener of the meeting, Hon. Frederick Agbedi, in his opening remarks said the meeting was to seek direction from the party on how to proceed in the incoming 10th assembly, adding that the PDP had the numerical strength of 116 to achieve its objectives in the parliament.

Also, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji from Enugu State said the PDP was ready to use “our number to get strength in the House,” even as others who spoke thanked the party for making the platform available for them to contest the election.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Joint Task-10th Assembly, Hon. Usman Kumo, who spoke at the inauguration of the forum in Abuja yesterday, said the forum had no preferred candidate for the office of the speaker of the 10th House but to ensure that the expectations of Nigerians were met.

“We are a multi-partisan forum of the eight political parties that have won seats for the 10th House of Representatives. Although our logo displays the names of the political parties that make up this forum, it is pertinent to list them individually.

“The political parties are the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Young Progressive Party (YPP).

“Our driving force is ‘Nigeria’s unity and the stability of the 10th House of Representatives. In ensuring the above, we have resolved to go by the decision of the majority party, which is the APC, in deciding which zones produce the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.

“We believe that the APC would do the right thing, and once the zoning is done, we would decide on the next line of action. We would be guided by capacity, competence, experience and other leadership qualities,” Kumo said.