N’Assembly: Appointment Of Principal Officers Delay Allocation Of Seats, Offices

The delay in the appointment of principal officers by political parties may affect the allocation of offices and seat numbers to the Ninth National Assembly members before their resumption on July 2.

Investigations by our correspondent on Sunday revealed that the management of the National Assembly had awarded a multimillion-naira contract for the supply of office furniture, rugs, refrigerators, television sets, photocopy machines and desktop computers among others.

The Director of Information in the nation’s parliament, Rawlings Agada, told our correspondent on the telephone that all the items needed to make the lawmakers’ offices functional would be provided before their resumption on July 2.

He said, “The offices would be ready for occupation before resumption.

“The management has perfected necessary plans to ensure that as soon as they resume, they will get their offices.”

He said the process for the allocation of seats in the chamber had started but noted that it could only be completed on time with the timely appointment of principal officers.

“The appointment of principal officers has to be done before all these processes would be completed.  The announcement has to be done before every other thing, “ Agada added.

The Peoples Democratic Party had named candidates for the Senate minority officers’ positions but had yet to release the list of its minority principal officers in the House of Representatives.

For the Senate, the PDP named its member representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Abaribe, as the Minority Leader, and Emmanuel  Bwacha from Taraba South as the Deputy Minority Leader.

The party also picked the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory,  Phillip Aduda, as the Minority Whip, while Clifford Ordia, from Edo Central was named as his deputy.

The All Progressives Congress, on the other hand, has yet to announce its majority principal officers in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The National Assembly spokesperson told our correspondent that the plan of the bureaucracy was “to make sure that as the members of the 9th Assembly are coming in, they are getting the keys to their offices and their seats in the chambers.”

Source: PUNCH