Speakership poll: Reps defend Gbajabiamila over alleged financial inducement

The House of Representatives on Monday dismissed the claims by some members that Hon Femi Gbajabiamila induced his colleagues financially to vote for him as the Speaker during last Tuesday presiding officers elections, describing the allegation as falsehood and share total blackmail.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday. the Spokesman of the House Ad hoc Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon Khadijah Bukar Abba-Ibrahim shortly after the inauguration of four ad hoc Committees by the Speaker, declared Gbajabiamila won his election on merits.

According to Prof Julius Ihonvbere, who stood in for the ad-hoc Committee Chairman, Gbajabiamila had no reason to induce any lawmaker as he worked hard enough to deserve the seat.

” For us, we have conducted a democratic election which was aired live. In the end, winners emerged and we all witnessed the losers congratulating the winner on the floor and he has taken charge, he is in control, there is no cause for alarm, he is on course

“To us as a House, everything is now in the past and we are focused on the serious legislative business which is why we are here to carry out, to make the House and the country better

“As far as we are concerned nobody received money, nobody was enticed to vote. As a matter of fact, no one campaigned intensely robust more than Gbajabiamila, and it went beyond the call of duty to explain what he has to offer.

“At times he went to the various parts of the country with over 120 lawmakers, with that kind of work, he needed to buy no vote”.

A House of Representatives group, G7 had on Monday during a programme on a National Television said it would seek legal redress to ensure that the result of the election is upturned because members were financially induced.