8th May 2023
Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress in the North-Central have protested against an alleged exclusion of the zone from the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, which will be inaugurated on June 5.
The stakeholders, including lawmakers, said this on Sunday as the APC state chairmen in the North-West supported the decision of the national leadership of the party to adopt Senator Godswill Akpabio (South-South) and Senator Barau Jibrin (North-West) as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively.
But North-Central stakeholders, in separate press conferences in Abuja on Sunday, were unanimous in faulting the reported decision of the APC leadership on the Senate presidency and the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) and Barau (Kano) were said to have been adopted for the Senate positions, while Tajudeen Abbas (Kaduna) and Benjamin Kalu (Abia) would become the next leaders of the House.
But the Convener of the North Central APC Stakeholders, Dominic Alancha, in his address titled ‘10th National Assembly: We Demand Justice, Equity and Fairness for North Central Zone’, in Abuja on Sunday, said, “We are constrained to register our disappointment and to protest the decision of the APC leadership to zone two presiding positions, Deputy Senate President and Speaker in the 10th National Assembly in favour of the North-West to the total exclusion of the North-Central and other zones in the country.
“Having won the 2023 presidential elections fair and square, we expect the leadership of the APC to be guided by the principle of justice and fairness in zoning leadership positions in the parliament, and had thought that factors like commitment to the success of the party, level of contributions and the need for fairness, equity and justice to all would guide the decision.”
The stakeholders said it opposed the plan to zone the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North-West zone because that would imply undue favouritism, lack of fairness and the marginalisation of other zones.”
Support for Akpabio for Senate presidency attracts protest from some APC stakeholders
