Reps: Gbajabiamila loyalist rejects committee chairmanship
There was a mild drama on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday when a member Garba Datti Mohammed rejected the chairmanship of the committee given to him by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
Datti
served
as
deputy minority whip during the immediate past House under former Speaker and now Sokoto State governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
Datti, who is a strong supporter of Dogara’s challenger for the speaker’s seat and now House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila, was last week announced as the chairman of the House standing committee on solid minerals alongside 94 others.
But the lawmaker who represents Sabon Gari Federal Constituency of Kaduna State said he was not consulted before given the task, thus, he rejected his appointment on the floor yesterday.
Immediately after
Datti announced his resignation, majority of APC members applauded his decision. The House immediately continued with the other business of the day.
Although Deputy Speaker Yussuf Suleimon Lasun, who presided over yesterday’s plenary said Datti should wait for Speaker Yakubu Dogara to The Saudi Arabia government’s deadline for pilgrims’ departure for this year’s hajj exercise has been set at Muharram 15 (tomorrow October 29).
The Kingdom’s Directorate General of Immigration (or Jawwazat) has warned that the guidelines do not allow any pilgrims coming from abroad to overstay the validity of their visas.
A statement by the Director General, Major General Solaiman bin Abdulaziz said those who violated the provision would be fined SR 100,000 (Saudi Riyals) or N6million.
Also, the directorate warned companies and institutions working in pilgrim services against holding back any information about delays of any pilgrims in departing.
The Director General of the Ministry of Hajj’s office in Madinah, Mohammad Al-Bijawi, was quoted as saying that the office continues to pursue its plans to see that the last pilgrim leaves the country as scheduled. return from pilgrimage in Israel before tendering his resignation letter but it emerged later in the day that the House leadership had accepted his resignation.
Consequently, he was replaced with another strong loyalist of Gbajabiamila, Rep Samaila Suleiman, representing Kaduna North Federal Constituency of Kaduna State.