Senate Presidency: North East Senators Gang Up Against Senator Lawan’s Chances
The Senate Presidency ambition of Senator Ahmed Lawan may have hit a brick wall as 12 out of the 13 senators who were elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress from the North East, dissociate themselves from the support for Senator Ahmad Lawan’s emergence as the consensus candidate for the North-East zone.
At a press conference yesterday led by Senator Danjuma Goje in Abuja while rejecting the choice of Sentor Lawan the North-East senators asked “other zones” not to choose for the North-East if eventually the position is zoned to that part of the country.
Speaking on behalf of the other lawmakers, Senator Goje, said senators from the North-East held a caucus meeting on Thursday night at the Kaduna room, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, with Senator Lawan also in attendance, Goje also hinted that that the North-East Senators at the meeting also resolved that the North-East should be allowed to consult with the party leadership to nominate a consensus candidate for the position.
According to him he said Lawan sneaked out of the Abuja meeting, saying that the senators were shocked to discover that the Yobe State senator was being announced as the consensus candidate of the North-East and North-West senators in the media.
Goje said the development was unacceptable and, “in fact, desperation at its peak.”
Stating further he said the North-East would continue to appeal to the leadership of the APC to zone the highest position in the National Assembly, the Senate President, to the zone as a result of what he called “peculiar circumstances.”
He added that the caucus also requested that the party leadership provide the opportunity for the zone to nominate whoever they want for the position, after due consultation with the party.
“Therefore, in the light of the above resolutions, we call on all Nigerians to completely disregard any purported endorsement of any senator from the North-East by any zone for the position yet because any post zoned to us must have our input.
“We don’t know anything about any endorsement of anybody from the North-East being touted around through the pages of newspapers.
“We dissociate ourselves from any endorsements from other zones because the party has not zoned any position to us yet and we don’t want to jump the gun,” he said.
Those present at the press conference include Goje himself, the secretary of the caucus, Isa Ahmed Gusau Bauchi Central); Ali Ndume (Borno South); Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe Central) and Abdulaziz Murtala Nyako (Adamawa Central.
Others were Binta Marshi Garba (Adamawa North); Ahmed Abubakar (Adamawa South); Usman Bayero Nafada (Gombe North), Abubakar Jare (Borno North) and Sulynan Nazif (Bauchi North).
