Two different professional groups in the National Assembly , held elections for emergence of new executives on Friday in Abuja to steer the ships of their organisations in the reportage of activities of the Federal lawmakers as well as efficient support services to them.
While the first group under the aegis of National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum ( NASSLAF) , elected nine new executive officials for fresh four years in office , the Senate Press Corps ( SPC) , in its own election, returned eight out of the nine executive officials for fresh two years mandate.
Interestingly in the NASSLAF election, Mallam Salisu Zuru , the Senior Legislative Aide ( SLA) to the Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate , Senator Sahabi Alhaji Yau ( PDP Zamfara North), defeated Mr Patrick Okunneh , the Senior Legislative Aide to the Deputy Senate President , Senator Ovie Omo- Agege for the Chairmanship position of the Forum with 29 to 19 votes.
For the position of Secretary, Bola Adeyemo defeated Babajide Sholanke with 32 votes against 16 while Queen Peter emerged as Assistant Secretary with 28 votes.
Others elected were Adoba Rapheal Ikechuckwu as Vice Chairman, Aisha Musa as Welfare Officer, Adebayo Adekoye as Financial Secretary, Agu Enyinnaya as Assistant Financial Secretary, Abdul Lauya as PRO 1 and Barrister Anena Anigueze as Legal officer 1.
For the Senate Press Corps, Mr James Itodo, of the Radio Nigeria (Abuja Operations) was overwhelmingly re-elected as chairman with 64 votes as against 20 votes scored by Sanni Onogu of the Nation’s Newspaper.
Also returned with wide margin of votes were the vice chairman, Mr Chinedu Echianu of Vision FM, Folashade Abdulsalami of the MITV as Secretary, Godfrey Eshiemoghie of the Galaxy Television as Assistant Secretary.
Others returned were Nneka Amaechi Nnadi of the Tide Newspaper as Financial Secretary, Olugbenga Salami of the Nigerian Pilot Newspaper as Treasurer, Taiye Odewale of the Blueprint Newspapers as Auditor and Mustapha Eniseyin of MITV as Welfare Officer while Ayo Oguntade of the Lagos Television ( LTV), emerged as the new Chief Whip.
At the NASSLAF election, both the management staff of the National Assembly (NASS) comprising the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, and Clerk to the National Assembly, were represented along with their counterparts from the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC).
The Chairman, zonal committee and legislative aides, Hon Akano Hakeem Olabode who represented the Executive Chairman of NASC, Engineer Amshi Ahmed Kadi ( FNSE) at the election , appealed to the legislati,ve aides not to be confrontational to both the NASS management and NASC.
Accordimg to him, as legislative aides, “Their primary duties are to give the required supports to their bosses at all times in the areas of development – driven bills drafting, timely motions on issues of national importance and quality representation.
“Capacity building in form of trainings , will always be organi6zed for you in collaboration with the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) for optimal performances in these areas.
“What the NASC wants from NASSLAF is unity of purpose and not division or confrontation against the management of the Federal parliament,” he said.
In his victory speech, the re- elected Chairman of SPC, James Itodo, said his victory and those of other executive members were for the entire press corps, just his rival, Sanni Onogu, promised to work hand in hand for upliftment of the corps.
