Senate Presidency: Yari Camp In Coordinated Offensive Against Akpabio

The aspiration of Senator Godswill Akpabio for the office of Senate President was on Tuesday under severe pressure from the camp of his leading challenger, former Governor Abdulazziz Yari with endorsements here and there for the penultimate Zamfara governor.

South-South groups and chiefs that ordinarily should be boosting Akpabio were on the contrary eroding support for the former Akwa Ibom governor with the Abuja South-South Community leading the charge.

Besides the Southern groups, the Northern Elders Forum, NEF intervened subtly on Tuesday with a charge to President Bola Tinubu to remove his hand from the process following his endorsement of Senator Akpabio.

Besides, a crack in the Southwest caucus of the All Progressives Congress, APC emerged when Senator-Elect Jimoh Ibrahim openly endorsed Yari as the most qualified for the position.

Speaking on Politics Today on Channels Television, the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed urged the presidency to remove its hand from the National Assembly leadership election saying that the legislators should be given a free hand in determining their leaders.

“Don’t tell them who should be their leaders, they are matured enough on who should lead them,” Baba-Ahmed said in a subtle rebuke of President Tinubu over his open endorsement of Akpabio.

He added that the legislators should be given the respect that they deserve in allowing them to choose their leaders.

Senator-Elect Jimoh Ibrahim speaking in the same vein dismissed the arguments of party supremacy in guiding the choice of Akapbio as he cited Yari’s experience as governor, chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum and as a member of the House of Representatives among others for his choice.

Also in Abuja on Tuesday, a coalition of youth groups at a rally in Abuja canvassed non-interference in the affairs of the legislature.

Meanwhile, it emerged that some political actors in the South-South who ordinarily should be backing Akpabio were identifying with Yari. Among those who have come out are former Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro and Dr Cairo Ojougboh, former executive director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

GWG.ng reports that Ojougboh was executive director at the NDDC at the same time Akpabio was minister of Niger Delta Affairs and his support for Yari was indicative of the claim that their once cordial working relationship may have been turned awry.

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