By Chimaobi Afiauwa
Ahead of the June 13th inauguration of the 10th National Assembly and with the political jostling on who becomes the next Senate President intriguingly high, fear and tension appear to have gripped Senator Goodwill Akpabio’s camp over the alleged Kalu-Izunazo-Yari alliance, per multiple reports.
Two APC Senators from the South East, Orji Uzor Kalu, and Osita Izunaso are separately talking to former Zamfara governor Abdulaziz Yari and other aggrieved aspirants about the need for a possible alliance to defeat Akpabio, who had been endorsed by the leadership of the ruling APC, according to ThisDay Newspaper’s investigation.
While Kalu confirmed his moves on Tuesday to journalists, a member of the campaign team of Izunaso, who spoke with journalists on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance between Yari and his principal would be perfected at a meeting in Abuja today.
Further investigations by MUK TV revealed that panic had since gripped senators in the camp of the former governor of Akwa Ibom State.
A yet-to-be-confirmed report also indicates that President Bola Tinubu was allegedly reconsidering his decision to support Akpabio for Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.
This, according to the report, has led senators mostly from the South West to hurriedly call for a meeting on Friday where they would also review their position and chart a new course for the leadership of the Senate.
One of the senators from the South West region told some journalists off the record that the meeting was scheduled for Friday and that they were awaiting the outcome of a crucial meeting of some senators-elect scheduled for today, which they had asked some of their members to attend.
“Nigerians were outraged by the micro-zoning of the position of Senate President to Senator Godswill Akpabio, who is at present being investigated by anti-graft agencies for a series of cases involving sleaze.
“Recall that Tinubu declared pointedly in his inaugural speech that his government would take proactive steps such as championing a credit culture to discourage corruption while strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of the various anti-corruption agencies.
“With this statement, most of us have come to the full realization of the fact that President Bola Tinubu would not, for anything, support any senator with myriads of cases of corruption in the anti-graft agencies after declaring before the world that he would strengthen and make them more effective,” the source said.
But the Director General for the Akpabio/Barau Stability Group, Senator Ali Ndume, has dismissed claims by the aggrieved aspirants and their loyalists, saying, “It is not surprising that whenever a politically exposed person is contesting elections, some people would be sponsored to raise issues against him or her.
“Don’t forget that President Bola Tinubu was also severely accused when he was campaigning to be president. We are not bothered by what the sponsored groups are saying about Akpabio; the anti-graft agencies know what to do; why are they teaching them what to do?
“They are accusing that some corrupt activities took place under his watch at the NDDC, but they did not say he misappropriated funds as governor or as minister.” Akpabio was not the accounting officer of the NDDC; he was only heading the supervising ministry.
“They also accused him of not constituting the board of the NDDC, but that was also not his job. The president of the country is saddled with such responsibility,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Coalition of Concerned Niger Delta Stakeholders, Odiedini Maachree, addressed journalists in Abuja on Wednesday and declared that his group would not support Akpabio because of the roles he allegedly played in the NDDC.
“In the wake of subsidy removal and the anticipated hardship it may bring to Nigerians, we need robust Senate leadership to make laws and approvals that will cushion the effect of the interim hardship of the subsidy removal.
“We frown and dissociate ourselves from any anointed candidate by any political party and therefore support an independent legislature without interference. We, the coalition of concerned Niger Delta stakeholders, hereby state categorically that we did not endorse any senator in the south-south region of Nigeria for the Senate presidency.
“Rather, we think that the Senate should be a level playing field where leadership elections will be conducted fairly and anyone with the majority vote wins. Again, we state that His Excellency, Yari, is a man to beat, and in the end, if he emerges as Senate President, we are optimistic that he will lead the 10th Senate credibly without fear or favor.”
