Rabiu Omaku
Hon.Daniel Ogazi, The embattled and factional Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly has today (Friday) said he set aside his Speakership ambition for the sake of Nasarawa State.
The third time member of the State Assembly and Chairman, the committee on education during the fifth sixth Assembly disclosed this during a press conference held at the Press Centre in Lafia.
Hon.Ogazi told Journalists that he won the election for the Speakership of the Assembly with a simple majority but was compelled to set aside his ambition for the overall interest of Nasarawa State.
According to him”, I contested and won with a simple majority to emerged Speaker but due to some lacuna I approached a court of competent jurisdiction to seek Justice.
He described the imbroglio in the State Assembly over the tussle for the seat of Speaker as a struggle to strengthen democracy but not for somebody to decide.
“My decision and other members to back out is not about an individual interest rather it was a fight for the State”.
He affirmed that the House would be re-inaugurated to enable the State to meet up to the demands and the needs of the State.
Our resolution was due to the intervention of the President of the Federal Republic, Bola Ahmed Tinubu Nasarawa State Governor Engineer Abdullahi Sule, and the party leader in the State.
The embattled Assembly was engulfed leadership crisis erupted where two speakers emerged with Balarabe and Ogazi leading different groups.
While Balarabe was elected at a sitting in the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state by 11 out of 24 members, Ogazi was elected by 13 out of 24 members at plenary at the State Assembly complex.
As the crisis escalated, the state’s APC led by its Chairman, John Mamman on June 9 endorsed Balarabe as the Speaker for the State 7th Assembly.
On June 10, Ogazi went to a Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to stop Balarabe and Mr. Jacob Kudu from parading themselves as a speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 7th Assembly,
