APC zones Senate Presidency to North-central, North-east to produce Speaker

 

The national leaders and national caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have officially zoned the office of the Senate President in the 8th Senate to the North central geo-political zone, while the Speaker of the House of Representatives was zoned to the North-east geo-political zone after a meeting in Abuja Thursday night.

A source at the APC meeting which lasted till the wee-hours of Friday said that the party leaders accepted in principle a prototype office sharing formula that would accommodate all vested interests within the party.

The source said: “After deft negotiations, the leaders agreed to cede the position of the Senate President to the North-central and that of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North-east.
“They also endorsed a zoning arrangement that would see the South-west producing the Deputy Senate President and South-south, Deputy Speaker.”

With the agreement on Friday, the current minority leader in the Senate, George Akume from Benue State and Bukola Saraki from Kwara State are expected to engage each other in a fierce contest for the Senate Presidency.

It was learnt that the position of the Speaker was earlier allotted to the South-west but had to be moved to North-east following a strong lobby by leaders from the zone who argued that such arrangement was necessary to compensate them for the massive support for the party during the election.

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