![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/9th-Assembly-Onyejeocha-speaks-on-withdrawal-from-Speakership-race.jpg\")
<\/p>\nShe announced her decision in a statement made available to reporters on Monday night less than 24 hours to the inauguration of the ninth National Assembly.<\/p>\n
Onyejeocha disclosed that the reason behind her decision had to do with the assurances given her by the All Progressives Congress, APC, that her constituencies will be carried along, fully recognised and effectively reintegrated in the incoming federal legislature.<\/p>\n
Consequently, she declared her support for Femi Gbajabiamila, the APC\u2019s preferred candidate.<\/p>\n
The statement reads: \u201cI threw my hat in the ring to improve the legislative framework for inclusive growth and social justice in Nigeria, especially for a marginalised group like poor women and the youth, who have been clamouring for more participation in the Nigerian economy and the state of affairs in recent times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a common knowledge that I also entered the race on behalf of my zone, the South-east, to address the agitation of exclusion alleged against our party and to equally zonal balancing in first-line leadership arrangement of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawmaker said she was aware of her party\u2019s stance since the inception of the race but decided to push ahead because of the exclusion the South-east zone and for gender balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am therefore stepping down with a greater hope based on assurances from my party leaders and colleagues, that in the leadership and management of the House of Representatives in the 9th legislative session, the interest and voice of my constituencies \u2013 Southeast and women in Nigeria \u2013 will be carried along, fully recognised and effectively reintegrated<\/p>\n
\u201cI have confidence in this assurances and also that my campaign has further sensitised my party to the imperative of inclusion of the Southeast and women in the governance of the country in the next four years,\u201d she said.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Only female candidate in the race for the Speakership position in the incoming National Assembly, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, has stepped down from the contest. She announced her decision in a statement made available to reporters on Monday night less than 24 hours to the inauguration of the ninth National Assembly. Onyejeocha disclosed that the reason behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[29,8017,12433],"class_list":["post-125499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-apc","tag-femi-gbajabiamila","tag-nkeiruka-onyejeocha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}