Strong Indications have emerged that crisis is rocking the candidacy of former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio as the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have withdrawn his support for him in the contest for the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.
Recall that the All Progressives Congress, APC had announced the endorsement of Senator Godswill Akpabio and three others for the topmost positions in the National Assembly.
Senator Akpabio from South-South was endorsed for Senate President, Senator Jubrin Barau from North-west for Deputy Senate President, Honourable Tajudeen Abass, North-west for Speaker, House of Representatives and Hon. Kanu, South-East for Deputy Speaker.
This did not however go down well with some members of the party and especially those aspiring for the position of Presiding offices in both the Senate and the House of Representatives as there were protests, condemnations and strong criticisms across the country.
It was highly criticized why party would allot two of the six presiding offices in the National Assembly to a zone and leaving the North Central without any position, even as many others criticized the zoning of Deputy Speaker to the South-East instead of Presidency of the Senate generally believed to be due to the zone.
Nigerians were not happy with the micro zoning of the position of Senate President to Senator Godswill Akpabio who is at present being investigated by anti-graft agencies for series of cases bothering on sleaze.
It was gathered yesterday that Senators mostly from the South West have called for a meeting to hold on Friday where they would work towards reviewing their position to look for a new course on the leadership of the Senate.
According to a Senator from one of the states in the South West, the meeting was scheduled for Friday as they wanted to know the outcome of a crucial meeting of the leading tendency among the senators-elect scheduled for Thursday which they have strategically asked some of their members to attend.
President Bola Tinubu was said to have heeded the advice of his trusted political allies by tacitly withdrawing his support for the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
The President, the sources said was resolute in running a corruption-free government with emphasis on strengthening all the existing policies and institutions concerned with corruption towards achieving this goal.
In his inaugural speech, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared pointedly that his government would take” proactive steps such as championing a credit culture to discourage corruption while strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of the various anti-corruption agencies.”
“With this statement, “ the Senator said ”most of us have come to the full realization of the fact that President Bola Tinubu would not for anything support any senator with myriads of cases of corruption in the anti-graft agencies after declaring before the world that he would strengthen and make them more effective.
“We have seen the follies in remaining in this camp. It will not work. We have fixed a meeting for Thursday where we are going to chart our next line of action.” A Senator from one of the states in the South West said.
The camp which was mainly sustained by the ambiguous endorsement of the National Working Committee NWC of the party, a claim that the National Chairman of the party, Senator Adamu Abdullahi has debunked severally as he maintained that the party needed “further and better” consultations on the matter.
Recall that early last week, Senator Adamu Abdullahi openly told Honorable Tajudeen Abass one of the beneficiaries of the controversial zoning formula to stop parading himself as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, advising him to prepare himself for the contest for the position which would be finally decided on the floor of the house.
In a swift reaction, the Director General for the Akpabio/Barau Stability Group, Senator Ali Ndume, APC, Borno South said, "It is not surprising that whenever a politically exposed person is contesting elections, some people would be sponsored to raise issues against him or her.
"Don't forget that President Bola Tinubu was also severally accused when he was campaigning to be president.
"We are not actually bothered about what the sponsored groups are saying about Akpabio, the anti-graft agencies know what to do, why are they teaching them what to do?
"They are accusing that some corrupt activities took place under his watch at the NDDC but they did not said he misappropriated funds as governor or as Minister.
"Akpabio was not the accounting officer of the NDDC, he is only heading the supervising ministry.
"They also accused him of not constituting the board of the NDDC but that also, was not his job. The president of the country is saddled with such responsibility."
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