APC fumes over Northern senators’ insistence on Senate Presidency

The All Progressives Congress has opposed northern senators vying for the senate presidency.

The party insists that any northerner angling for the leadership of the senate had no respect for the party’s constitution.

The National Vice Chairman of the APC, North-West, Malam Salihu Lukman, says for fairness, northern senators contesting the post should step down.

Party chieftains in the South-South and South-East had called for the zoning of the senate presidency to their regions in the spirit of fairness and to give other geo-political regions a sense of belonging in view of the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket adopted by the party.

So far, no fewer than eight senators have indicated an interest in the race with senators such as Jibrin Barau, Kano Central, Sani Musa, Niger East, Orji Kalu, Abia North, and GodsWill Akpabio, Akwa-Ibom North-West toping the list.

In the meantime, a chieftain of the APC and former commissioner for works in Kano State, Mu’azu Magaji, has warned that the APC may lose its strong support base of the North-west geological zone if the party does not zone the office of the senate president to the region.

Magaji called on the APC leadership to select the senate president from Kano to sustain its support base for the party in the region in the face of other opposition parties wanting to take control.

This is as he dismissed a call by the spokesperson of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who protested against the zoning of the seat of the senate president to the northwest region.

With legal fireworks set to fully commence, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has asked the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, in Abuja to dismiss the petition filed by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the president-elect in the 25 February election.

The APC, the 4th respondent, urged the PEPC to reject the petition in its notice of preliminary objection filed at PEPC’s Secretariat, last night, by Thomas Ojo, a member of the party’s legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi in Abuja.

The party asked the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial cost on the grounds that it lacked merit and was frivolous.

Obi, the 1st petitioner, and LP, the 2nd petitioner, had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and APC as 1st to 4th respondents respectively.

The petitioners are seeking the nullification of the election victory of Messrs Tinubu and Shettima in the 25 February presidential poll.

Relatedly, hoodlums reportedly enforcing a court judgment have been clashing with their counterparts in the Magodo Isheri area of Lagos State.

It was gathered that during the clash, the hoodlums, who were armed with weapons, engaged themselves in a free for all, creating tension that sent shivers down the spines of landlords, residents and business owners operating in the community.

A resident, who preferred no mention told journalists that people had been trapped in their houses due to the breakdown of law and order by people claiming that they possessed a court judgment that granted them ownership of land in the community.