The All Progressives Congress (APC) senators met again on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 to iron out the issue of those to occupy the principal offices on the upper chamber with the meeting ending in another stalemate with the lawmakers restraining themselves from engaging in physical combat, The Cable reports.
Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East Senatorial District) said the positions ought to be zones democratically to different zones of the country but the APC leadership-backed Senator Ahmed Lawan group refuse the stance, insisting that the party leadership must produce the candidates.
He said: “When the senate president came, the only thing he said was quite simple, that the senate leadership has been zoned to the northeast, the chief whip has been zoned to southwest, while the deputy senate leader has been zoned to northwest.
“Then the deputy whip has been zoned to south-south, and luckily, there’s only one [APC] senator there, so automatically, it would go to him and then, some people are complaining that no, this should not be the way it should be done.
“I think it is okay, because what he said is that people should go back to their own zones and come up with one candidate and that is more democratic.
“The rancour here is that some people feel that should not be the case. The other so-called Unity Group should have everything, and we say that is not correct.”
On the defence of Lawan’s Senate Unity Forum, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North) said the Senate President Bukola Saraki “Senators of Like Minds” were the cause of the rancour as the insisted on imposing their will on them.
He said: “The leadership of the party, which is the APC, still reigns supreme to decide the true position of leadership and we shall have it. Any attempt to do otherwise is to cause confusion
“We are just coming from the meeting of the leadership of the party and we are aware that the leadership of the party is doing all it can to settle the differences.
“Therefore, simply put, the cause of the rancour is an attempt by the senate leadership to again force its will on the majority of the senators of the APC.”
Another pro-Lawan lawmaker who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “Matters of leadership within the chamber must be deferred to the leadership of the party. The leadership of the APC has taken a decision for which we are sure that the press would be in the know by the end of the day.
“Any other position of any section of the caucus of the APC of the senate is only factional in nature. Therefore, for order to prevail, a caucus must have leadership and for now, and until then, the APC national leadership commands the respect and leadership of the APC, not only on the senate caucus but entirely on anything APC.”
