A member of the House of Representatives, representing Okigwe North Federal Constituency of Imo State, Miriam Odinaka Onuoha has berated reports describing her as ineligible to contest for a presiding officer’s position in the House.

In a statement, signed by Onuoha’s Media Office, she condemned the piece, noting the House Rules allow “A Member-elect, addressing the Clerk, shall propose another Member-elect with experience as a member of the National Assembly to be Speaker and shall move that such Member-elect, ‘Do take the Chair as Speaker of the House of Representatives”

The statement continued: “Rt. Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha is qualified to run for the position she is seeking at the National Assembly.

“The afore quoted rule is the Ranking Rule for lawmakers by virtue of which all returning lawmakers qualify to run for the position of Speaker being, usually, referred to as Primus Interperes! (First Among Equals)”

“For the avoidance of doubt,Rt Hon.Miriam Odinaka Onuoha,Member representing Okigwe / Onuimo and Isiala Mbano (otherwise known as Okigwe North) Federal Constituency and Chairman, Committee on Disabilities of the House of Representatives, remains a lawmaker who possesses the competence, experience, character, the qualifications, the leadership skills and popularity among her colleagues to aspire to any leadership positions at not only the House of Representatives,but anywhere else across the land.

“And so we continue to wonder who is afraid of the rising profile of Rt. Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha,the Princess of the 9th Assembly who has continued to dazzle all National Assembly watchers and political pundits since she made her belated,but triumphant entry into the National Assembly on the 27th February 2020? After spending 3 good years and 4 solid months within which our star lawmaker has made appreciable general impacts

“For Hon. Miriam Odinaka Onuoha,she wants the people to judge her by her competence, experience,character and achievements in and outside the House of Representatives.Her life remains an open book,which anyone can pick up and read;a mirror through which people can from what she has done read what she is capable of doing! She has met all the needed criteria in legislative prowess,in brilliance,in youthful energy and zeal,in political astuteness,in maturity,in gender balancing and equity for the Southeast Zone to present herself to her colleagues for their kind consideration for leadership,yet she remains humble about it all.

“Hon. Miriam Onuoha has in the 9th Assembly sat for the required 181 days yearly of full legislative session constitutionally required of every National Assembly in line with Chapter 4,Part I(63) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended),which stipulates that:”The Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for a period of not less than One Hundred and Eighty-one days in a year.”

“Further more, Hon.Miriam Onuoha is currently the pioneer House Committee Chairman on Disabilities. Her records in the Special Committee,for which she has received several official accolades from both governmental and corporate quarters in high places.”