>
Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen Abdullahi Adamu, has advised the party’s anointed candidates for the national assembly leadership positions to be mindful of an upset during the inauguration in June.
Adamu, during a meeting with the party’s consensus candidates for the leadership of the senate– Senator Godswill Akpabio and Jibrin Barau, urged them to arrive early for the inauguration on June 13.
Akpabio and Barau led a delegation of 42 senators to the APC national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday, to brief the party on the progress of their consultation with other aggrieved aspirants, stakeholders and senators in the upper chamber of the national assembly.
Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon Yakubu Dogara had in 2015 shunned the party’s directive by arriving early to contest the leadership positions and emerged as the Senate President and the House of Representative Speaker, respectively.
Recalling the incident on Tuesday, Adamu warned that such a scenario must not be allowed to repeat itself.
“But let me warn. Don’t be late. I hope I am communicating. Don’t be late. Once bitten twice shy,” Adamu said.
The meeting with theAPC leadership came one week after the APC micro-zoned the position of Senate president to the immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and the deputy Senate seat to Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation.
A member from Kaduna State, Tajudeen Abbas, was also tipped for the position of the House of Representatives Speaker.
The party had also met four aggrieved aspirants for the senate presidency seat, who threatened to revolt by disobeying the party’s decision if the zoning formula was not reviewed.
But addressing Akpabio and his delegation of 41 senators, the APC national chairman expressed satisfaction over the level of progress the anointed candidates for the senate leadership has made ahead of the inauguration.
“We did clearly mention in the announcement that we need further and better consultation. We need to deepen consultations to carry many others along. From all you have (Akpabio) just said, there is ample evidence that there has been consultation and we will not relent to ensure that, if it were possible, all senators-elect agree. Whatever we do, whatsoever signature we collect, the final decision will be on the floor of the Senate and also the House.
“All these efforts are very good and important but we are in a democracy and people are bound to have opinions and we have no right to stop them. I’m happy that we are heeding the advice and directives we gave to make consultations. I’m happy that it is very fruitful. We shall wait till June 13 on the floor of the House. I want us to have a rancour-free election. Because even if everybody says it is Akpabio or Y or X, the rules of the game say there must be an election.
“Those who are in the Senate are aware of the rules. On the day of the proclamation the president and the clerk make the proclamation. So I do hope and pray that we will carry the day and be victorious. But let me warn you again, don’t be late. I hope I am communicating,” Adamu said.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters, Sen Opeyemi Bamidele urged the NWC to call on other dissenting voices to support the position of the party.
Addressing journalists, an excited Akpabio disclosed that 70 senators-elect were supporting him.
The senator representing Borno South district, Ali Ndume, also gave an assurance that the 70 senators backing the Akpabio-Barau ticket were men of integrity who can’t be induced.