A group of senators-elect campaigning for Senate Leader Ahmed Lawan yesterday, dismissed claims by former Senate Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume as untrue and misleading. This has heightened the intra-party intrigues in the APC around the choice of the president of Nigeria’s ninth Senate.
Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, spokesperson of the ‘Ahmed Lawan for Senate President Group of Senators,’ told reporters in Abuja that APC senators-elect were carried along in the adoption of Lawan for the position.
This is contrary to the position of Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, who claimed on Tuesday that the announcement of Lawan’s adoption by APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole shocked the party’s senators-elect during a dinner with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ndume, at a media briefing in his Abuja residence on Tuesday, had alleged that the choice of Lawan by Oshiomhole was done without any consensus.
Although Abdullahi did not mention Ndume, he stated categorically: “It is not good for somebody to peddle lies.” He said when Oshiomhole announced the adoption of Lawan, the party chairman spoke in the presence of some state governors including those of Oyo, Kebbi and Borno.
Abdullahi, who is also Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, quoted Oshiomhole as having appealed to them to support Lawan, to avoid the mistake of the past.
“Immediately he said that, there was instantaneous and spontaneous applause by senators who were there. For somebody to say there was surprise and shock following the announcement, he was economical with the truth. There was no shock, rather there was relief,” Abdullahi said.
He noted that the APC has learnt its lesson from the mistakes it made in 2015 when Bukola Saraki emerged Senate president against the directive of the party, assuring that there would be no such crisis this time.
“We the senators-elect have made a choice. We have the right to say whom we want. Our choice is Ahmed Lawan. Do you expect that Mr. President and the party would abdicate their responsibility? This is what they accused us of in 2015. Now, they have spoken. Why are you complaining?”
APC National Publicity Secretary Lanre Issa-Onilu further confirmed the party’s decision to endorse Lawan as Senate President.
Briefing reporters at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, he said Lawan enjoyed the backing of the party’s leadership, including Buhari.
Lawan was picked ahead of other eligible senators after it was resolved that the position of the Senate president should be zoned to the northeast of the country, he said.
On Ndume’s opposition to Lawan’s endorsement, the party said the lawmaker was merely exercising his right to free expression, stressing that as a card-carrying APC member, he is bound by the decision.
