Senate Presidency: North East senators threaten Lawan’s chances
Twelve out of the 13 senators elected on
the platform of the All Progressives Congress from the North East, said
in Abuja on Friday that they were not in support of Senator Ahmad
Lawan’s emergence as the consensus candidate of the geo-political zone
for the post of Senate President, in the incoming Eighth National
Assembly.
The lawmakers, led by Senator Danjuma
Goje ( Gombe Central) at a news conference, said they were still
pleading with the leadership of the party to zone the position to their
region but that they had not picked anyone as the consensus candidate.
They also vowed to resist any attempt by anyone or group of people, to impose a candidate on them.
The Senators said they would decide on
the consensus candidate on their own instead of queuing behind a
candidate anointed by outsiders.
Goje, who spoke on behalf of his
colleagues, explained that Senators from the North-East held a caucus
meeting on Thursday night at the Kaduna room, Transcorp Hilton Hotel,
Abuja with Lawan himself in attendance.
He said the meeting resolved that the
caucus should be allowed to consult with the party leadership to
nominate their preferred candidate for the position.
Goje alleged that Lawan sneaked out of
the meeting while they were still agreeing on the resolutions, only for
him to be announced few minutes after, as the candidate endorsed from
the North-East for the post of Senate President by both the North-West
and South-West senate caucuses.
He said, “This to us, the remaining 12
APC senators- elect from the zone, is fraudulent and unacceptable and in
fact, desperation at its peak.”
Goje insisted that 12 out of the 13 APC
senators- elect from the North East, had resolved to establish the
zone’s caucus for the 8th Senate. He appealed to the APC highest
hierarchy to zone the highest position in the National Assembly, that
is, the position of Senate President to the zone in view of its peculiar
circumstances.
‘’We don’t know anything about the endorsement of anybody from the North-East being reported on the pages of newspapers.
“We disassociate ourselves from any
endorsement from other zones because the party has not zoned any
position to us yet and we don’t want to jump the gun.”
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