The newly elected Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has asserted that the 10th assembly would be no rubber stamp after clinching an unprecedented landslide victory on Tuesday.
The speaker made this known while speaking State House correspondents in Abuja after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa.
Abbas noted that members of the house expressed their votes across party lines, contrary to what he described as conversations and media propaganda.
In addition, he said that the 10th assembly would work with the executive branch to enhance efficiency or, when needed, question policies in the sake of the nation’s development.
Hours earlier, the member representing Zaria Federal Constituency in Kaduna State, who was the anointed candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeated Idris Wase and Aminu Jaji in a voice vote.
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Held at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, the election saw Abbas earn 352 votes of 359 votes cast in total, while Jaji and Wase polled three votes each.
Abbas, who has been a member of the House since 2011, was subsequently sworn in as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, succeeding Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff-designate to President Bola Tinubu.
Meanwhile, a member representing Bende Federal Constituency in Abia State, Benjamin Kalu, emerged as the Deputy Speaker of the House.
He was elected unopposed, succeeding Wase, who was the Deputy Speaker of the House for the ninth National Assembly.
Similarly, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has been elected as Senate President during the inauguration of the 10th Senate on Tuesday morning.
The 109 Senators had converged for the election of key officers of the upper legislative chambers of the National Assembly.
Senator Godswill Akpabio, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker from Akwa Ibom North West, and Senator Abdulaziz Yari from Zamfara North West, who is also of the APC, were the two contenders for the office of the number three citizen.