The members-elect will later visit the South-west and South-south zone.
A group of newly elected members of the House of Representatives supporting Muktar Betara for the Speakership position, have commenced a tour of the South-east zone to canvass support for the Borno lawmaker.
The lawmakers, drawn from All Progressives Congress (APC), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Labour Party (LP), will start the campaign in Enugu State before going to the other four states in the zone. The states are Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi and Abia.
The lawmakers-elect will also visit the South-west and South-south zones later to drum up support for Mr Batara, who is an APC member.
The Leader of the delegation, Ismail Dabo, the member-elect of Toro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, while speaking with journalists, said the new members are backing the Borno State lawmaker and will campaign for him.
He stated that the lawmakers are working to prevent "a bully" from emerging as the speaker of the 10th House.
He said, "We are new members-elect from different political parties and irrespective of our party affiliations we have resolved to support Muktar Betara Aliyu.
"In furtherance of his campaign, Hon. Betara who doubles as Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, has proved to the world that he is capable of leading the over 300 lawmakers.
"As you know, we do not want a bully as a leader in the 10th House of Representatives that is why he is our anointed candidate and we chose to begin awareness from Enugu," he noted.
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Array of aspirants
Over 10 lawmakers in the House have indicated interest to run for the position of the Speaker of the 10th House.
Mr Betara will be competing against Deputy Speaker Idris Wase (APC, Plateau), Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau), Muktar Betara (APC, Borno), Sada Soli (APC, Katsina), Tunji Olawuyi (APC, Kwara) and Abubakar Makki (APC, Jigawa) who have all declared interest in the position.
Others are Tajudeen Abbas (APC, Kaduna), Aminu Jaji (APC, Zamfara), Ben Kalu (APC, Abia), and Miriam Onuoha (APC, Imo).
Although the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has yet to take a decision on the zoning, however, with the return of president-elect Bola Tinubu, the zoning issue is expected to be sorted out.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the governors of the ruling APC had in a memo to the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, proposed the zoning of the position of the speaker to the North-west or North-central geopolitical zones.
