Femi Gbajabiamila emerges Speaker of 9th House Representatives

Members of the House of Representatives have elected Femi Gbajabiamila as Speaker, House of Representatives of the 9th assembly.

The choice candidate of the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 281 votes to defeat Mohammed Bago, still of the APC, who had 76 votes, on Tuesday. A total of 358 House of Representatives members cast their votes on the floor of the House, with one vote rendered invalid.

Like Senate President Ahmad Lawan, Gbajabiamila was the preferred candidate of the APC in 2015 but Yakubu Dogara, who was then of the APC, had teamed up with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to defeat him.

Dogara had defeated him with just eight votes.

While the sorting of votes was ongoing, Bago walked up to Gbajabiamila to congratulate him and this elicited a thunderous round of applause among their colleagues.

Gbajabiamila assumed office in 2003, representing Surelere 1 Federal Constituency.

In 2011, he contested for a third term on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria and won.

More to follow...