Hon. Uchenna Okoro of the Labour Party (LP) has been declared the majority leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, dominated Abia House of Assembly.
Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Emmanuel Emeruwa, made the announcement on the floor of the House.
Okoro is the member representing Arochukwu state constituency.
The PDP has 11 members, LP 10, Young Progressives Party (YPP) 2 and the All Progressives Congress (APC) 1 in the 24-member Assembly.
Emeruwa, who announced the house leader, said an understanding was reached between the LP, YPP and APC before the decision was taken.
The Speaker announced Hon. Destiny Nwagwu(LP/Aba North) as Deputy majority leader, Hon. Emeka Obioma (LP/Umuahia South) as chief whip and Iheanacho Nwogu(YPP/Osisioma Ngwa North) as deputy chief whip.
Meanwhile, the PDP has rejected the leadership distribution.
Addressing journalists after the plenary, Chief Solomon Akpulonu (PDP/Obingwa East) said the PDP is the majority party in the Assembly and will not allow the Labour Party, the minority party in the Assembly, to produce the majority leader.
He said: “We raised this issue at the executive session, and the Speaker was advised not to touch the positions of the majority party, the PDP. Our party had nominated principal officers and sent the names to the Speaker.
“The rules of the House, order 8, subsection 42, stipulates that the majority leader will be appointed from amongst the members of the majority party in the House.
“We agreed that the Speaker should read out the nominees of the majority parry, but it is unfortunate that we came to the plenary, instead of reading the letter from the PDP; he turned it to give the majority positions that belongs to PDP to LP which is the minority party.
“The PDP has 11 members and should produce the majority leader, deputy majority leader, chief whip and deputy chief whip.
“The LP should produce the minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip and deputy minority whip. We will not allow the minority party to take the position of the majority party.”
