It has been reported that no fewer than thirty-five Senators from the APC are supporting former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume to clinch the seat of Senate President for the Ninth Assembly.
It was gathered that the lawmakers were angry with the leadership of the party over its decision to impose Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, without recourse to them. The lawmakers, who pleaded anonymity, expressed disappointment at Lawan over alleged statement credited to him that all the APC State Governors have donated their Senators to him to ensure his victory.
The Senators-elect said, “We are not happy over claims by Lawan that APC governors have donated their Senators-elect to him in order to realise his Senate Presidency. Even they have gone ahead to share the juicy Committees to Senators-elect that are favourable to the imposition.”
The lawmakers said they disliked attempts to intimidate and harass some of them with using the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC); adding that they have uncovered plans by the party to plant spies in the gallery of the chamber to monitor the elections.
The lawmakers rooting for Ndume are mostly drawn from the incoming Senators and a few former governors who feel slighted by the bullying tendencies of the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
A few of the lawmakers, who spoke to DAILY POST on the sideline of their induction exercise holding at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, asked the party to retrace its steps to avoid the pitfall of 2015 when it lost the seat of Deputy Senate Presidency to the main opposition.
This was as some lawmakers in opposition PDP like Former Governor of Benue State Gabriel Suswamm who already perceive Lawan as a symbol of the ruling APC and a willing tool for the executive give hint that APC might be in for another shocker.
Recall that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara at the induction exercise on Monday warned that leadership should not be imposed on the legislature. He said that it would spell doom for the lawmakers if leadership was imposed, arguing that it makes legislative Chambers an appendage of the executive.
It would also be recalled that the move by the APC leadership and National Leader of the party, Tinubu, who since 2015 has been campaigning and mobilizing for Senator Ahmed Lawan, to clinch the senate President seat has reached a dead end. From all indexes, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and other party leaders have failed to convince Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume to drop his political ambitions to vie for the Senate presidency.
Close associates of Ndume said that the leadership of APC and some top influential senators met last week and decided to reach out to Ndume to show their solidarity, who is contesting the position against Senator Ahmad Lawan. The sources said Ndume even rejected moves by the APC National Leader, Chief Ahmed Bola Tinubu to drop his senate presidency ambition.
Some political associates in the name of concerned group of Pro-Lawan senators-elect were in Maiduguri on Friday to meet Governor Kashim Shettima, also a senator-elect, but were disappointed when they could not meet with him as Shettima was said to have travelled abroad to Indian on official engagement.
“The governor, who was probably aware of the Pro-Lawan senators’ visit, travelled out of the country before their arrival. The lawmakers decided to meet the deputy governor,
who is not a stakeholder in the project. During the brief session, the deputy governor told the lawmakers that Shettima had travelled to Saudi Arabia.” It was learnt that the pro-Lawan senators returned to Abuja on Saturday evening disappoined to wait for the return of shettima back to Nigeria this weekend.
However, it was disclosed that some APC leaders were in secret talks with PDP senators-elect to support Lawan for the Senate Presidency who are loyal and friends as well as members of Senator Saraki group that have not been in good terms with senator Ndume. Governor Shettima, who is from the same state with Ndume, is one of the major backers of the former Senate leader for the position where it was gathered that the pro-Lawan senators-elect would have used the opportunity of their visit to Maiduguri to talk to Governor Shettima on the need to respect the choice of the party by supporting Lawan.
In the same vein, the leadership of the ruling APC is at loggerhead with the presidency over the insistence of some senator-elects to contest the Senate presidency despite endorsement of Senator Lawan. It will be recalled that Ahmed Bola Tinubu has been quoted in the past as saying those not in support of the party’s zoning arrangement for the National Assembly positions were free to leave the party. While there are speculations that the party leadership has threatened to expel any member who decides to move against its stand on the leadership of the National Assembly.
Nevertheless, a member of the APC National Working Committee confided with our correspondent that, “the truth of the mater is that, for now, the issue of expulsion of our members who are threatening to move against the party’s choice is not on our bill board or score card.”
Source: Daily Post/The Nigerian Voice
Please leave your comments below.