10 NASS Tussle: APC Considering Open Contest — Sourc
National Working Committee, NWC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, will declare a free contest for principal officers of the 10th National Assembly.
The APC had earlier zoned the Senate presidency to the South-South and the speaker of the House of Representatives to the North-West.
It announced Senator Godswill Akpabio, as its consensus candidate for Senate presidency and Senator Jibrin Barau, as the next Deputy Senate President in the 10th Assembly.
Similarly, the party zoned the speakership of the House of Representatives to a Kaduna lawmaker, Tajudeen Abbas, while Ben Kalu, a reps-elect from South-East, clinched the Deputy Speaker slot.
The APC zoning, however, elicited angry reactions from lawmakers-elect who had declared their intention to contest.
Multiple sources said following the APC NWC’s suspicions that its proposed zoning may be thwarted, it is, however, recommending that the contest be thrown open.
Another source who spoke in confidence last night, said: “It appears the NWC is suspicious that their plan may not go as planned and that is why they are recommending a free contest.
”Secretly, they have recommended a free contest because they (NWC) have intelligence that the G-6 aspirants have already adopted a consensus candidate among themselves but they have not revealed the identity of that person.
