‘Igbo’s marginalisation claim baseless’

A PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) member of the House of Representatives, Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinman, has described as baseless the claims of marginalisation by South-East legislators in the sharing of principal offices.

According to him, “it will be premature for the lawmakers from the region to raise the issue, especially now that Nigerians who voted for the lawmakers were yet to see any palpable impact of the Eighth Assembly.”

Speaking to newsmen in Abuja over the weekend, Agbonayinman (Egor/Ikpoba/Okha constituency of Edo State) said the parliament was poised to hit the ground running after the protracted leadership crisis that started soon after its inauguration on June 9, 2015.

“I think we need to put Nigerians first, let’s be selfless rather than selfish, let us not play partisan politics with selfish interest but think how we can move this country forward,” he said.

“Under the leadership of our former president you could see how the South-East benefited immensely, nobody cried. I have close friends and brothers from the east and I grew up there.

“We are all one Nigeria, so I don’t want one side of the country to now start playing negative politics. This is a new regime, let us work together to see how we can move this country forward.”

With the emergence of the principal officers, he noted, the House has put behind whatever happened and is set to work as a parliament for the benefit of Nigerians. He added: “We are resolute to move this country forward, people expect a lot of good things from us.