Nigeria’s President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had allegedly rejected plans by some ranking senators from the South-west geopolitical zone to make him support their agenda for using a consensus arrangement to produce the presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly.
An APC chieftain who sought to be anonymous expressed fears that the desperate moves by the senators might jeopardise the APC’s zoning arrangements on the floor of the Senate on the day of inauguration.
Meanwhile, the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) will tomorrow submit its report on the zoning of the 10th National Assembly leadership positions for consideration by the leadership of the APC and President-elect Tinubu.
It was gathered that Tinubu had requested the setting up of the APC governors’ zoning panel after some governors kicked against a consensus arrangement aimed at micro-zoning the presiding officers’ positions at the National Assembly to certain individuals.
A source told ThisDay that some anti-consensus governors threatened to move against the party’s leaders if due process was not followed in electing the presiding officers of the federal parliament.
A source close to one of the governors revealed on Saturday that the 10th National Assembly zoning report would be submitted on Monday.
Earlier, a report by The Sun stated that the President-elect rejected the recommendation made by the national working committee of the APC for the senate presidency to be zoned to the south-south geo-political zone.
According to The Sun, this development emanated after a closed-door meeting between the president-elect, the chairman of the APC and the party’s national working committee on Wednesday, April 26.
It was gathered that some APC lawmakers of the National Assembly were also present at the crucial meeting.
According to The Vanguard Newspaper, details from the meeting confirmed that Tinubu was not in agreement with micro-zoning the Senate Presidency but was in tune with zoning the position to the south.
This means there will be an open contest between south-south and southeast aspirants who will slug it out in a fair battle.
Sources privy to the camp of Senator Godswill Akpabio, who is from the south-south region, said the lawmaker was the one orchestrating the agenda for the senate presidency to be micro-zoned to his region.
Information from another source revealed that most lawmakers in the red chambers are queuing up behind Senator Orji Uzor Kalu from Abia state, southeast zone .
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