A MONTH after giving Aminu Tambuwal a bloc vote to emerge as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, it is pay back time for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The opposition party is insisting that its members must be given the chairmanship of some juicy positions in the Lower Chamber.

The Speaker is also facing another challenge from the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is insisting that it must choose those to occupy the remaining four principal positions of House Leader, his deputy, Chief Whip and his deputy.

It was gathered that the ACN leadership had already sent a powerful team to Tambuwal to intimate him of its intention not to compromise on its intention to fill the chairmanship of committees, such as Custom and Excise, Education, Finance, House Service, Agriculture, Appropriation, Aviation and Gas (downstream) among others.

The demand is outside the chairmanship of Public Account Committee which traditionally goes to the leading opposition party and Committee on Media and Publicity already occupied by Bamidele Opeyemi (ACN Ekiti).

A source said the ACN leadership met Tambuwal at the weekend to demand for the committees “if he really wants our full support during his four-year tenure or be a victim of our big stick”.

It was learnt that the PDP leadership had already submitted the names of Mulikat Adeola-Akande as House Leader from the South/West and Jerry Manwe from Taraba State as her deputy.

But, another powerful group in the PDP is pushing for Muraina Ajibola as the House Leader “and Tambuwal is in a dilemma over who to pick”.

During the June 6 election which produced Tambuwal as the Speaker, Adeola-Akande and Ajibola contested against him.

While Adeola-Akande was sponsored by the presidency, Ajibola was the candidate of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The source, however, said that Tambuwal preferred John Enoh from Cross River as the House Leader while he is looking in the direction of the North-East to fill the position of the Deputy House Leader.

Out of the 28 A-list committees often reserved for strong and ranking members across the party having majority members , the trend is changing now as ACN is asking for more than half of them with another condition that, at least, 50 of its members must serve as deputy chairmen of the second category on the list which contains other strategic committees.

Parly Iriase (Edo ACN) said that Tambuwal has a moral burden to consider his ACN colleagues for key appointments going by their support for him in June during the election.

He explained that the strength of his speakership lies heavily on the support of the opposition in the House.

But Bitrus Kaze (Plateau PDP) warned the Speaker to allow his party have its way in all appointments.

According to him, the party, not the Speaker, owns the office having secured majority of members in the 360-member House.