Image courtesy Business Day
Members of the House of Representatives under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) met with the party’s national chairman Adams Oshiomhole on Thursday without Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
Speculations have emerged that the speaker is planning to defect from the party.
Explaining why the speaker was absent from the meeting, which lasted about two hours, House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila said it may have been due to his tight schedule.
The Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party and the lawmakers discussed plans to introduce direct primary in the selection of candidates for various elective positions in the 2019 general election.
At the parley, Oshiomhole reiterated his desire to sustain direct primary as a means of repositioning the party.
He said, “Somebody asked if we are going to counter the PDP by offering automatic tickets and I asked, did we serve anybody a departure ticket? If we did not give you a departure ticket, how did the issue of return ticket arise?”
“For me, we are clear that every legislator who has value and is at home with his people and not with the godfathers in their communities, is an asset to our party and we will do everything possible to retain them.”