Senate Presidency: Lawan Group Boasts of 37 Senators’ Support

Saraki camp: Produce their names and signatures

There is no respite yet on the battle of wits between the two groups of senators led by Ahmad Lawan and Bukola Saraki in the quest to ascend the the office of the Senate President as each of the groups has been laying claim to the support of majority of senators within the All Progressives Congress (APC).

While the Saraki camp had announced on Saturday that it had already secured the support of 35 of the total APC senators, the Lawan group in a statement yesterday, said it secured the support of 37 of the 59 senators. What these conflicting figures imply is that either of the two groups is lying or both are being economical with the truth since the two figures being bandied amount to 72 whereas APC has a total of 59 senators.

Sixty senators were elected on the platform of APC but with the death of Ahmad Zannah penultimate weekend, the number has reduced to 59. However, these 59 APC senatorselect broke into two factions on Saturday following their inability to arrive at a consensus on the choice of candidate for the Senate president’s office.

Consequently, the Lawan group under the aegis of Senate Unity Forum, claimed that senators-elect from various zones of the country had thrown their weight behind the candidature of Lawan (Yobe, North-east) for the office of Senate president and Senator George Akume (Benue, North-central) as Deputy Senate president respectively.

But few hours after this submission, Saraki’s camp under the auspices of Senators of Like Mind, said it had collated the signatures of 35 of 59 APC senators-elect who had resolved to back Saraki’s aspiration to become the next Senate president.

The Saraki group yesterday faulted the claim of 37 senators in Lawan group, challenging it to produce their names and signatures as it had done.

In the statement signed by Senators Robert Ajayi Borrofice (Ondo, South-west); Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe, North-east); Barnabas Gemade (Benue, North-central) and Abu Ibrahim (North-west) on behalf of Senate Unity Forum, the group said it had resolved to set the records straight in view of conflicting reports about what transpired at the weekend.

The group dismissed reports that the APC senators-elect retreat held in Abuja at the weekend was held with the intention to conduct a primary that would produce a sole candidate for Senate president’s office, saying conducting a primary was never in the agenda.

“Given the conflicting media accounts surrounding the issue of the prospective candidate for the Senate presidency from the APC, we of the Unity Forum are constrained to make this clarification. This response has become necessary because we do not want to portray our party as a collection of desperate, indispline and selfish people. Rather, we believe that party preservation and the overall interest of the party should be paramount at this point.