Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June, a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from North West , has accused the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu of collecting two bullet proof cars and an undisclosed amount of money from a former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio to be made President of the 10th Senate.
The NWC member in a chat with newsmen on Sunday, urged other members of the party’s NWC to reject Adamu’s move to anoint Godswill Akpabio as the President of the 10th Senate to avert crisis in the party, saying: “The next Senate President should come from the Northwest geopolitical zone as a compensation for the number of votes we gave our President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima.
“It is wrong for our National Chairman who lost his state to the Labour Party (LP) to collect bribe from Senator Akpabio to make him the next Senate President. We understand that Akpabio has given him brand new bullet proof cars and billions of naira; Senator Abdullahi Adamu should understand that we have capable hands in the Northwest that can become the Senate President, afterall we voted massively for the party. If the Senate President cannot be zoned to the Northwest, the Southeast should have it for fairness and equity: while the speaker of the House of Representatives should be zoned to the Northwest; the North-central should produce the deputy senate president and South-south takes the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives,” he said.
Apart from the senate presidency, other positions that will be filled include the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Senate President as well as the principal offices.
The principal officers are leaders of the majority and minority caucuses, which are largely based on membership configuration in a chamber.
They include the majority leader, deputy majority leader, majority or chief whip, the deputy whip, minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip and deputy minority whip. These 10 men and women steer the affairs of each of the Senate and the House.
According to the parliamentary tradition, ranking members – lawmakers serving two or more terms form the leadership of the parliament.
So far, according to the INEC chair, the All Progressives Congress won 57 senatorial seats, the Peoples Democratic Party won 29, the Labour Party got six, while the New Nigeria Peoples Party and Social Democratic Party got two each.
On the other hand, the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Young Progressive Party got one seat each.
In the House of Representatives, the APC garnered 162 from the 360 seats, PDP got 102, LP, 34 seats, NNPP 18, APGA four, SDP and ADC got two each, while YPP won one seat.
