Updated: House Speakership: Betara, Gagdi step down after meeting Tinubu

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Two major aspirants for the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aliyu Betara and Yusuf Gagdi, have withdrawn from the race.

Their withdrawal was announced by Vice President Kashim Shettima Sunday evening at the State House in Abuja after a meeting the aspirants and Mr Shettima had with President Bola Tinubu.

Mr Shettima also said Messrs Betara and Gagdi have endorsed the candidature of Tajudeen Abbas, a lawmaker from Kaduna State, for the position of speaker.

The meeting was attended by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the governor of Niger State, Mohammed Bago, who is a former member of the House, and the Deputy National Chairman (North) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Aliyu Betara and Yusuf Gagdi have accepted to step down and endorsed the candidature of Hon Tajudeen Abbas for the Speakership of the Federal House of Representatives.

“The president was quite touched by their gesture because what binds us together is superior to whatever that divides us. We are one big APC family and together we shall all go to… on Tuesday. We cannot thank them enough for the gesture….

“And we want to commend the roles played by the Chief of Staff to Mr President, by his Excellency, the Executive Governor of Niger State, by the leadership of the party here represented by the Deputy National Chairman (North). I think our party members will heave a sigh of relief,” Mr Shettima said.

Messrs Betara and Gagdi were considered leading aspirants for the speakership position until the ruling party, APC, and Mr Tinubu zoned the ticket to the North-west and declared support for Mr Abbas.

On Sunday, they also pledged their support for Ben Kalu, a lawmaker from Abia State, south-east Nigeria, for the position of deputy speaker.

While Mr Betara hails from Borno State in the north-east, Mr Gagdi is from Plateau State, north-central Nigeria.

They belong to the “Group of Seven” lawmakers who vowed to go ahead to contest for the speakership seat despite the support of their party and Mr Tinubu for Mr Abbas.

The other members of the group are the outgone Deputy Speaker of the House, Idris Wase (Plateau), former House Leader Alhassan Doguwa, Sada Soli (Katsian), Sani Jaji (Zamfara) and Miriam Onuoha (Imo).

The lawmakers also complained that Messrs Abbas and Kalu were anointed as the party’s candidates without consultations and vowed to pick a consensus candidate among them to run against the former (Abbas).

Mr Doguwa has since left the group and declared support for the preferred candidates of the party.

It is, however, not clear if the others will equally declare their support for Mr Abbas, like Messrs Betara and Gagdi, as none of them has commented on the development at the time of this report.

The election of the new speaker and the deputy speaker will be held Tuesday during the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly.