Senate President: Yari leads aggrieved senators to Adamu, threatens to sink APC in North

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

Immediatepast Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulazeez

Yari has threatened that North will sink the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) except the party reverses the zoning formula it adopted on Monday, which saw Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas chosen as party preferred candidates for Senate President and Speaker in the 10th National Assembly.

Addressing the National Chairman of APC, Abdullahi Adamu and other National Working Committee (NWC) members, when he led a group of aggrieved senators, including Sani Musa, Orji Uzor Kalu, and Osita Izunaso, who were barred by the party’s zoning formula from contesting the Senate President, Yari assured that APC will become history in the North if it continues to push the adoption of the zoning formula.

Lamenting what he described as contravention of democratic tenets, injustice and abuse of loyalty in the party’s choice of the leadership of the 10th Assembly, the former Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) said “We are here to present our letter of grievances to you and also tell this honourable house as leaders that we are not satisfied with the arrangement and what we are expecting from you people is to give us a fair play at least if nothing, to mention that a particular item is zoned and anybody in that particular zone can participate.

“Mr. Chairman we are not undermining what you are doing, but we are doing this for the sake of this party to grow and we are doing it for the best interest of the party because where we are talking today, if we from the North take another decision, it will not be good to all of us and it will become history which we don’t want that to happen.

“And only if we do justice, that will protect that from happening but we should all pick our pen today and write it, which is 11th May. Anything from the contrary, walahi the Northern Nigeria will take another decision.”

“So, Mr chairman, we have been in this game and we understand it very well and it is about dialogue. We are saying party supremacy and we are looking at the election we won in 2023 and the next election is 2027, it depends on how we play the part.

“The president-elect got 63.4 percent in the northern extraction. Where he came from in the South, he got 36.6 percent. Atiku Abubakar from Northern Nigeria got 68.8 percent of the total vote in the North and he got from Southern Nigeria 33.2 percent.

“So, now if there is anyone who can say we own APC; we in northern Nigeria own the president elect. Without undermining any part of the country. They have given their best and we can understand their situation but justice needs to be done. We should not be blinded that the power of anyone is not absolute but only God is absolute.

“We should not look at these four years as 20 years and then we are going into another election. We are going back to the next election, we should underline that we are elected and we are going to be looking for another election. So, whatever decision you are going to take, we are expecting you as friends that work with the President elect to tell him not to go there. We do not need rocket science to explain how you can defend it that what you are trying to do is for the betterment of the APC, and for the betterment of the President elect”, Yari said. He also cautioned that if the APC insists on going by its zoning arrangements, the opposition may do the nomination and have their way, which he said will become a problem for the party.

In his response, APC Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu said the party only issued an advisory directive and not a consensus on who occupies the various positions in the leadership of 10th Assembly, adding that it is subject to review.

According to him, “Whatever you heard is the art of human endeavour and we are not perfect as human beings. We can make mistakes. So, if we find in the course of further consultations the mistakes that need to be looked at, we will look at them.

“We will go through your memo, line by line and ensure that we are able to capture the spirit of your presentation and see what will be the best way out of the situation we have.

“Hold the fire until the last word is heard from us. We are the custodians of the party as NWC, but we are not acting alone. The voice of the president-elect is an essential voice. We must accommodate him, the best we can. I will not compromise on that. So, he is right now outside the country and by the grace of God, when he comes back, we will go back to the drawing board and put our heads together again and see what we will get.

“I cannot preempt that, I will wait until we hold that meeting with Mr president-elect, the same team that we had the same meeting with. If we need to enlarge the committee we will do so, we will be better informed through contributions that will be made.”

Presidential polls:

By Christiana Ekpa

Conference Of Nigeria

Political Parties (CNPP) has thrown its weight behind calls for live broadcast of the proceedings of the presidential election petition court sittings in Abuja.

In a statement signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, the umbrella body of all registered political parties and political associations in the country noted that not only will the live broadcast douse tension associated with the