A senatorial aspirant for the Northern senatorial district of Cross River State on the platform of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Barrister Cecilia Omonya Adams, has drummed support for the emergence of the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, as the President of the 10th Senate, expected to be inaugurated on June 13.
Barrister Adams, who stated this in an interaction with newsmen in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, noted that since the enthronement of the current democratic dispensation in 1999, no one from the South-South geo-political zone of the country has held the position of Senate President.
She said, “Now is the right time in fairness and equity, for the zone to have one of its own occupy the coveted seat of the Senate President.”
The APC stalwart added that “Senator Akpabio is the right man for the position, having done well in delivering greater successes for the party in the just concluded 2023 general election, by not only winning his senatorial seat, but garnering 132,683 votes in the presidential election in Akwa-Ibom State for the President-elect, His Excellency, Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
“In view of the above, and in line with the APC governors’ memo to the president-elect, His Excellency, Senator Tinubu on the appropriate zoning of the offices, which requested the contributions to the presidential election as a major factor, the South-South carries the day against the voting pattern of the South-East, which exhibited exclusionary electoral conduct.”
the legal practitioner-turned-politician further stated that “the excellent track records of experience in political governance and administration that Senator Akpabio has acquired, qualified him more than his fellow contenders for the position of the Senate President, having served as a commissioner, a governor, a minister of the Federal Republic and a ranking member of the Senate, who sacrificed his political career by accepting to give up his position as the Minority Leader in the Senate, when he defected to the All Progressive Congress.”
Others reported to be in the Senate Presidency race, apart from Akpabio are: Uzor Orji Kalu, the current Senate Chief Whip, Osita Izunaso, senator-elect for Imo West senatorial district; Sani Musa, the senator representing Niger East senatorial district; former governor of Edo State and former National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, who as a first termer and is being affected by the rule of ranking in the choice of NASS leadership.
Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi, who is also eyeing the office of the Senate President has stepped down for Akpabio, who appeared to be the man the APC leadership and governors on the platform of the party have settled for to occupy the country’s number-three seat.
Senator Barau Jibrin, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, who equally had the aspiration of becoming the Senate President in the 10th Senate, seemed to have dropped that ambition, and he is now being reportedly positioned to deputize Akpabio.
