Jatau, Oyanki To Emerge New Nasarawa Assembly Speaker, Deputy

Barring last-minute change, the deputy majority leader of Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Hon. Danladi Jatau (APC, Kokona West) is set to emerge as new Speaker of the House, LEADERSHIP can authoritatively report.

In the same vein, a member of the House, Hon. Mohammed Oyanki (PDP, Doma North) has also been pencilled down for the position of Deputy Speaker.

The development followed a meeting between the State Assembly members and Governor Abdullahi Sule at the Government House in Lafia, on Thursday.

A source privy to the meeting told LEADERSHIP in confidence that the emergence of the new Assembly leadership was a “done deal”.

“Jatau and Oyanki were the choice of the governor and members, and they will be officially inaugurated soon,” the source said.

The emergence of the new leadership followed the vacuum created by the nullification of the election of the former Speaker, Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, by the Court of Appeal recently.

LEADERSHIP reports that the Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, had on Tuesday, November 28, declared Sa’ad Abdullahi Ibrahim of the PDP as the rightful winner of the March 18, 2023 State Assembly election for the Umaisha/Ugya state constituency, and not Abdullahi.

With the court judgement, the deputy speaker of the House, Hon. Abel Yakubu Bala (PDP, Nassarawa Eggon West), stepped in as Speaker acting capacity.

The source said the acting Speaker would preside over the budget presentation by Governor Sule on Friday after which he will dissolve all standing committees of the House to set the ball rolling for the inauguration of a new leadership.

He added that the inauguration of the new leadership of the Assembly would take place either Friday or Monday.