Ugochinyere loses Minority Leader bid in House of Reps

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.

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