Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal stalled a move by his colleagues in the All Progressives Congress to effect a leadership change in the house.

After the defection of six more members of the Peoples Democratic Party to other parties was announced, the PDP’s minority position in the house became more pronounced, with APC having 181 members and PDP 156. The other minority parties have 23 members.

Based on this development, the Deputy Minority Leader, Abdulrahman Kawu (Kano), raised a point of order, saying that APC members should occupy the positions of House Leader and Deputy House Leader.

Similarly, Kawu said the positions of the Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip should also be occupied by the APC in accordance with the rules of the House.

However, the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, ruled that the matter should not be discussed as it was before the court.

Tambuwal had announced the defection of the members during the House’s plenary in Abuja.

The defected members are Tobias Okwuru and Peter Ali, both from Ebonyi, to Labour Party, and Chinenye Ike from Abia, to All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

Others are Micah Umoh and Robinson Uwak, both from Akwa Ibom, who defected to Accord Party to All Progressives Alliance (APC), respectively, and Ibrahim Garba from Jigawa, who defected to APC.

The membership of the House released on Jan.14 after the defection of 10 lawmakers to various political parties showed that APC had 179 members, PDP,162 while other parties had 19. The defection of the six PDP members further altered the parties’ positions.