Appointment: Allegations Levelled Against Osinbajo By Junaid Mohammed Untrue – Gaya

• Tells Osinbajo not to be distracted.
• Urges former lawmaker to crosscheck his facts.

Senator Kabiru Gaya has refuted allegations of sectionalism leveled against Vice President Yemi Osinbajo by Nigeria’s second Republic lawmaker, Dr Junaid Mohammed.

While urging Nigerians to ignore the claims, the lawmaker representing Kano South also urged the Vice President not to be distracted in his official duties.

Mohammed had alleged that Osinbajo as Acting President in 2017, appointed people from a section of the country and members of his church into government positions.

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Speaking with State House Correspondents after a private meeting with Osinbajo, Gaya said the allegations were unfounded and do not reflect the true position of things in the Office of the Vice President.

“I think before Junaid Mohammed speaks he should be able to check the records of who are the staff of the Office of the Vice President.

“I think I remember vividly that we have a member of the House of Representatives from Tarauni Constituency (Kano State) who is from the Office of the Vice President.

“I think that the Vice President should disregard this issue and continue working as the Vice President and for Nigeria. I believe he should not be distracted,” he said.

Deregistration of political parties

Speaking on the number of political parties available in the country, Gaya, who heads Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), disclosed that the National Assembly might consider the de-registration of some political parties.

He said this u the case because most political parties in the country do not meet the conditions for their continued existence.

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“We have 91 political parties and the court has added another political party, making it 92, and there are many applying; but there are criteria constitutionally that the parties should have a kind of qualification or, at least, requirement before they are registered or deregistered.

“So, actually, we are going to de-register almost 85 political parties because they are not qualified. They don’t even have a councilor or House of Assembly member. So, all those parties should be de-registered.

“The problem is that if you de-register a political party, they would come back through a back door again and register; but we have to have new conditions, tough conditions, for registration of political parties whereby we could maintain the number of four or five.”