>
Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Senator Adetokunbo Abiru (APC, Lagos East) has been elected chairman of the southern senators’ forum, nine months after the inauguration of the 10th Senate.
The southern senators met at the conference room of the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), on Wednesday, where they appointed Abiru and five other executive members to run the forum.
Others elected are Senators Victor Umeh (Labour Party, Anambra Central) as Vice Chairman; Mpigi Barinada (PDP, Rivers South East) as Secretary; Asuquo Ekpenyong (APC, Cross River South) as Publicity Secretary, and Kenneth Eze (APC, Ebonyi Central) as Treasurer.
In his acceptance speech, Abiru said that the forum would serve as a platform for discussing, analysing, and dissecting national issues by southern senators for the sole purpose of moving Nigeria forward.
The forum’s meeting comes on the heels of Bamidele’s claim that the budget padding allegation made by suspended Senator Abdul Ningi, the former chairman of the northern senators’ forum, was part of an agenda to unseat the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
