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ABUJA – The House of Representatives on Thursday announced a new leadership structure for the minority caucus, with the lawmaker representing Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency of Bayelsa State, Hon. Frederick Agbedi, emerging as the Minority Leader following the exit of his predecessor, Hon. Kingsley Chinda.
Agbedi’s emergence comes in the wake of Chinda’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a development that created a vacancy in one of the most strategic positions within the opposition bloc in the green chamber.
The announcement was made during plenary after Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, read a letter from the minority caucus conveying its consensus decision on the appointment of new principal officers to fill vacant opposition leadership positions.
According to the letter, minority lawmakers unanimously agreed on Agbedi as Minority Leader, Hon. Mansur Soro of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) as Minority Whip, and Hon. Abdussamad Dasuki of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as Deputy Minority Leader.
Part of the letter reads: “The minority members of the 10th Assembly hereby unanimously nominate the following members by consensus to fill the vacant positions of the minority in the parliament. “Number one is the Minority Leader, Hon. Frederick Agbedi. “Number two is the position of Minority Whip, and the person they have endorsed is Hon. Mansur Soro.
“The last but not the least is Hon. Abdussamad Dasuki for the position of Deputy Minority Leader.” Following the announcement, Speaker Abbas congratulated the newly appointed principal officers, noting that their emergence completed the minority leadership structure in the House.
“Honourable colleagues, today the body of principal officers is complete, and I want to seize this opportunity on behalf of the entire House to congratulate the three people and to wish them all the best in their new positions,” he said.
The speaker further assured the new opposition leaders of the cooperation of the House leadership in advancing the legislative agenda of the 10th Assembly.
“The leadership of the House will work with them assiduously in ensuring that we achieve our legislative agenda objectives of this very important 10th Assembly,” Abbas added.
A ranking legislator and one of the longest-serving members of the House, Agbedi has represented Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency since 2011 and is widely regarded as an experienced parliamentarian with deep knowledge of legislative processes.
