Hon. Frederick Agbedi, the lawmaker representing Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency of Bayelsa State, was elected the new Minority Leader of the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Agbedi’s emergence comes after the resignation of the previous Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda of Rivers State, following his defection from his party, the PDP, to the ruling APC.
His resignation leaves a vacuum in the leadership position of the minority group in the National Assembly’s lower legislative chamber.
Agbedi was named the new leader of the opposition in the lower legislative chamber through a consensus letter sent by the minority members to the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, at today’s plenary session.
The letter read by the Speaker confirmed that the opposition has come up with names for filling all vacant positions of minority principal officers.
Besides Agbedi, who is the new Minority Leader, Mansur Soro of APM (Bauchi) was appointed to become the new Minority Whip. On his part, Abdussamad Dasuki of ADC (Sokoto) becomes the new Deputy Minority Leader.
This being the case, Abbas was able to confirm that the parliament’s set of principal officers is finally complete.
Agbedi is a man who has vast institutional experience, given that he has continually occupied the position of a ranking member of the Sagbama/Ekeremor constituency from 2011 to date.
He will rally opposition lawmakers and shape their stance on national legislation.
There have recently been changes to the House Rules that have been very controversial due to the establishment of more stringent conditions for electing principal officers.
These new regulations affected the election itself, given that only one week after the nomination, the main opponent for the position of Minority Leader, Ikenga Ugochinyere of Imo State withdrew himself from the contestation process due to the new conditions.
The hasty consensus appointment is anticipated to bring back stability in governance within the opposition alliance in the wake of weeks-long political wrangling following the defection of Chinda from the PDP camp to the APC.
For the PDP, whose membership is still regarded as the largest among the minority parties in the upper house despite the defection from their ranks, the move is considered a wise step towards ensuring cohesion in the caucus and reinforcing the strength of the party against its opponents during parliamentary discussions.
Speaking at the occasion, Abbas assured the new opposition members that the leadership of the House would be working with them in transparency to ensure that the goals of the legislature are achieved in accordance with the set agenda of the 10th assembly.
