Constitution, not Tinubu, APC will decide Senate presidency – Yari

Abdul’Aziz Yari, a former governor of Zamfara State and senator-elect for Zamfara West, has vowed to go ahead with his Senate presidency bid.

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that other contenders for the position like Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi and Senator Ali Ndume (Borno) had withdrawn from the race and backed the party’s choice, former Akwa-Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio.

But Yari said Akpabio’s endorsement by the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, would not stop him from the contest.

He spoke while meeting with the executives of the Tinubu/Shettima Network (TSN), headed by Kailani Muhammad in Abuja Friday night.

He said the contest for the Senate presidency would be based on constitutional provisions and not instructions by anyone.

He said, “What is going to happen that day, it is going to happen based on the instructions of the constitution and not for anyone.”

Yari said the Senate presidency contest was senators’ business, backed by the 1999 constitution to choose their leaders not based on instructions from anyone.

Meanwhile, some senators-elect of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have rejected the choice of Senator Godswill Akpabio for Senate presidency in the 10th National Assembly.

Daily Trust had exclusively reported that the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had concluded plan to pair Akpabio and Senator Barau Jibrin as Senate president and deputy Senate president respectively.

A PDP senator-elect from the South-South, who preferred not to be named, said Akpabio was not in the good book of the PDP caucus in the National Assembly, both the outgoing 9th Assembly and the incoming 10th Assembly.