The lawmaker representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency in Imo State, Ikeagwuonu Ugochinyere, has lost his bid to become the Minority Leader as the House barred first-term lawmakers from holding principal offices.

The House passed the resolution at plenary on Wednesday following the adoption of a motion sponsored by lawmaker representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency of Lagos, Babajimi Benson.

The resolution clarified Order 7, Rule 15 of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives.

Order 7, Rule 15 of the Standing Orders of the green chamber states that only members with cognate legislative experience as members of the house of representatives shall be eligible for appointment as principal officers of the House.

Recall that some opposition lawmakers had last week nominated Ugochiyere for the Minority Leader position to succeed Kingsley Chinda, lawmaker representing Obio/Akpor federal Constituency, who vacated the role after emerging as the APC governorship candidate for Rivers state.

However, at plenary last Thursday, Philip Agbese, deputy spokesperson of the House and a member of the Labour Party, denied endorsing Ugochinyere to lead the Minority caucus.

Agbese alleged that his signature was forged on the document nominating Ugochinyere for the role, a claim the Action Peoples Party, APP, lawmaker dismissed as an outrageous lie.

Ugochinyere would later release a video to back his claim that Agbese signed the document endorsing him for the position of Minority Leader.

The lawmaker representing Misau/Dambam Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, Aliyu Misau, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and joined the Allied Peoples Movement, APM.

The speaker of the House, Abbas Tajudeen, announced the lawmaker’s defection on Wednesday during plenary.

In the letter, Misau said his decision to leave the PDP is due to the unresolved internal crises and persistent factionalism within the party.

DAILY POST reports that this is the second time in June that another Bauchi federal lawmaker defected from the PDP to the APM.

Recall that four members of the House from Bauchi State had on June 4, dumped the same PDP for the APM.

Arise News anchor Rufai Oseni has faulted the lawsuit against a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Kenneth Okonkwo by the Nigerian Democratic Congress, NDC, presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s legal team.

Obi had dragged the actor-turned politician to court for allegedly defaming him on national TV following the conduct of the NDC primary elections in the South East.

DAILY POST recalls that Okonkwo, in a recent interview, alleged that the NDC presidential candidate and other leaders of the party in the region collected bribes from aspirants seeking House of Representatives and senatorial seats.

The claim was vehemently pushed back by Obi’s camp, leading to a defamation suit and a seven-day ultimatum for Okonkwo to retract the claim.

Speaking during the Arise TV morning show, Rufai described Okonkwo as a “political surrogate”, stating that Obi should not waste his time in pursuing the case.

Giving his reason, Rufai said the lawsuit amplified the allegations, claiming that Okonkwo’s claim only became news after Obi slammed him.

He said, “If I’m to advise Mr Peter Obi, I would ask him to remove that case from the court.

“He doesn’t need. I can bet you that a lot of people did not even hear when Kenneth Okonkwo said it. It became news when Peter Obi sued him.

“You just gave a media traction to this guy, allow him to talk as he wants, the best you can do is to refute it. It is not everything you react to”.