The Labour Party (LP) has reacted to the outcome of the 10th National Assembly leadership elections held on Tuesday in Abuja.
OsunDaily News reported that Senator Godswill Akpabio emerged as the President of the Senate, while Senator Jibrin Barau won the position of Deputy Senate President.
Akpabio, who was the preferred candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeated the former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, by 63 votes to 46, while Kalu emerged unopposed.
At the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas won the election for the position of Speaker, while Benjamin Kalu emerged as the Deputy Speaker.
Abbas, who was also the preferred candidate of the APC, polled 353 votes, beating his rivals, former Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, and Aminu Jaji, who both secured three votes each.
In a chat with The Punch on Tuesday, acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiorah Ifoh said the outcome of the national assembly election was not surprising but rather disappointing.
Ifoh berated President Bola Tinubu and the ruling party for getting a majority of Senators and House of Representatives members to do their bidding.
The LP spokesman added that the President did not allow members of both chambers to elect their leaders, stressing that Nigerians should not expect the 10th National Assembly to be independent of the executive.
He said, “The conventional thing to do is to allow members of both chambers to elect their leaders but this was not what Nigerians witnessed on Tuesday.
“The APC and Presidency did everything possible to have their way and they succeeded. Nigerians should not expect this Assembly to champion any form of legislative independence because the Senate President and the Speaker of the House were the picks of the Presidency.’’
