Gbajabiamila was reportedly offered a deal by Dogara yesterday

Before meeting with the APC Governors peace committee on Sunday, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara had earlier met with Femi Gbajabiamila.

The House has been immersed in a crisis since the National Assembly leadership elections, when Dogara defeated Gbajabiamila, who was the preferred candidate of the All Progressives Congress.

In a bid to resolve the crisis in the House, Dogara had reportedly offered Gbajabiamila the chairmanship of the Ad Hoc Committee on Constitution Review.

The committee, which deals with issues relating to amendment of the 1999 Constitution and the 2014 National Conference, has an estimated yearly funding of about N1bn.

Ordinarily, the rules of the House says that the committee should be chaired by the Deputy Speaker, with members drawn from the six geo-political zones.

However, Punch newspapers reports that Dogara was ready to amend the House rules in order to give the position to Gbajabiamila, for him to back down from his ambition to be House Majority Leader.

Gbajabiamila, a former minority leader was said to have rejected the offer, stressing that he is only interested in becoming the majority leader in compliance with the decision of the APC.

He was said to have hinged his argument on the sustenance of good governance and the fact that discipline needs to be instilled in the party.

A National Assembly official privy to developments at the meeting revealed the following to Punch:

“The Speaker made the offer because he was still insisting that it would be unfair to other zones for the South-West to produce both the deputy speaker and the majority leader. The ad hoc committee is an important committee and the Speaker offered it in place of the majority leader position that Gbajabiamila is seeking.

“But, there was no headway because the Gbajabiamila group turned it down and said they would stick to the decision of the APC,” he added.

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