APC Islamic party pressure mounts on Lasun to step down

The All Progressives Congress is said to be mounting pressure on the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Lasun, to step down to allow another zone other than the South-West occupy the position.

This, it was gathered, was part of the options being considered to end the leadership crisis in the House of Representatives.

Towards this end, the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; his deputy Lasun and the Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, held separate meetings with the party chairman in his office in Abuja, on Friday.

After Dogara’s meeting with the chairman, neither he nor the chairman agreed to speak with journalists at the party’s secretariat.

Odigie-Oyegun later met with Lasun before they were joined by Aregbesola. They also declined to speak to journalists after the meeting.

Although details of the meeting are still shrouded in secrecy, it was learnt that Lasun was being urged to step down to enable the South-West where he comes from produce the Majority Leader of the House.

Attempts to reach the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, were unsuccessful, as he had yet to return from his trip abroad.

When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Wale Oladimeji, said, “While it is true that the deputy speaker, Aregbesola and Odigie-Oyegun met,   I don’t know where information asking Lasun to step down is coming from.”

Dogara had earlier written a letter to the party’s national chairman explaining his position on the distribution of the remaining leadership positions after the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.