Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, who has been seen as a staunch supporter of the kitchen cabinet around ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, appeared to have backed out of his support for the goup as he went into a closed door meeting with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan late last Monday.

Sources  close to the Presidential Villa confirmed to the Saturday Tribune that the Speaker, who was said to have celebrated the return of the ailing Yar’Adua lavishly, had to ask a serving senator to broker a peace deal between him and the Acting President.

It was gathered that some forces close to the Acting President had painted Bankole black before the Acting President as Bankole continued to play the cards of the kitchen cabinet.

It was also gathered that the Speaker had between 2007 and 2009 refused to pay any attention to the existence of the office of the Vice Presient but that in December 2009, he sent some unprecedented gifts to staff of that office, apparently as a result of the uncertainty over where the power pendulum was swinging.

Some sources had quoted Bankole as saying after Yar’Adua’s return that he has succeeded in putting to shame his detractors who believed that they had painted him black before the Vice-President who is now Acting President.

Sources said that Bankole had believed that some forces, who are bent on settling scores with him, might have reached the Acting President, who has not shown warm disposition to him since his emergence on February 9.

The Speaker then approached a serving Senator from the South-South, who brokered a one on one meeting between him and the Acting President.

Spokesman of the Speaker, Musa Ebhoamiah however denied knowledge of the said meeting between the Speaker and the Acting President.

Musa said that when there are meetings, the leaders usually call television and the media to cover it.

“I am not aware of any meeting between the Speaker and the Acting President. You know that in government, there are all types of meetings but usually they will invite the media and the television cameras. But I am not aware of any other meeting between the acting President and the Speaker other than the one shown on television, when the leaders of the National Assembly went to the Villa.” he said.

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