APC chair working against zoning arrangement, Lukman alleges

The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress for the North-West region, Mallam Salihu Lukman, on Wednesday, alleged that the party's leadership was subtly working against the zoning arrangement adopted for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.

Lukman accused the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, as the factional leader opposing the zoning decisions approved by the party's National Working Committee after due consultations with President Bola Tinubu.

Recall that the APC had earlier adopted the lawmaker representing Zaria federal constituency in Kaduna State, Tajudeen Abbas, and the lawmaker representing Bende federal constituency in Abia, Benjamin Kalu, as its candidates for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively; a situation that sparked outrage from other aspirants in the race.

In the upper chamber, the party micro-zoned the position of the Senate presidency to the immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio and Deputy Senate President to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Jibrin Barau.

The PUNCH had reported how Adamu warned supporters and some lawmakers to stop addressing Abbas as the incoming Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Adamu had also averred that consultation was ongoing with other aspirants in the race and other legislative stakeholders.

But Lukman, in a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday morning titled ‘APC and Transition Politics,' said, “Senator Abdullahi Adamu, instead of acting as the National Chairman, facilitating the implementation of decisions of organs of the party, is acting as a factional leader opposing the decision of the NWC. Instead of working for the success of the decision of the NWC through activating meetings of higher organs of the party to confer more legitimacy to the decision of the NWC, he seems to be more interested in ensuring that the 2015 model of rebellious leadership emerges in the 10th National Assembly.”

He also lamented that the party and its National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, “blocked all organs of the party from meeting, except the NWC.”

Lukman stated, “In the case of the NWC, it is more a case of spoon-feeding members with convenient information. And where challenged as was the case with the court case aimed at restoring constitutional order in the party, the National Legal Adviser, Ahmed El-Marzuq, become handy with spurious legal interpretations, which are anything but legal, bereft of any logic.”

Efforts to get the reaction of the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, and the party's Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, failed.

Morka did not pick calls or respond to messages sent by our correspondent, while Ibrahim said he could not speak on the issue.