Some Senators have spurned reports suggesting that there is still division in the Red Chamber in the aftermath of the election that produced presiding officers of the 10th Assembly.
They however conceded to the possibility of a handful of aggrieved lawmakers who may still be nursing grudges that their candidates did not win in the June 13 National Assembly leadership polls.
One of the Senators from the North told LEADERSHIP yesterday that most of the lawmakers from the opposition camp have since resolved to work with the Senate president, Godswills Akpabio, while attention has shifted to other presiding offices and headship of committees.
Dispelling claims that there is growing concern over alleged manipulation against the candidature of the close rival to winner of the Senate president election, Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, the ranking lawmaker noted that pockets of loyalists to the former Zamfara governor are the ones peddling such an allegation.
“You can not rule out the fact that electoral in Nigeria are fiercely opposed, which is why most aggrieved candidates in the last general election are in court challenging the outcomes. But that a few individuals have refused to accept defeat should not be interpreted to mean that there is still division in the Senate”, the source who did not want his name in print told our correspondent.
Similarly, another Senator who is a staunch supporter of Yari debunked plans by the camp to go to court, noting that a microscopic few in the Yari camp were the ones crying more than the bereaved.
Speaking with this paper in confidence, the Senator from the North Central zone said, “I can put it to you that Senator Yari would not want to set that kind of precedence that elections to choose NASS will become a matter of litigation in court. It would be the height of tomfoolery for the legislature, the second arm of government to rely on the third arm, judiciary, in resolving its internal crisis.
“Senator Yari, I’m sure, has since moved on. Those who supported him have seen reason why they should take the offer of inclusivity by Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Let’s encourage our candidate to be a good loser instead of peddling rumours of planned litigation.”
The lawmakers’ positions corroborates the stance of former Senate Majority Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, that there are no pro or anti-Akpabio Senators in the 10th Senate.
The former Abia governor who was also in Yari’s camp before the election, noted in a post at the weekend that even the person they worked for, Yari, understands that they need to work with Senate President Akpabio for a better Nigeria.
In a Facebook post on his verified page, Kalu said that Akpabio won the contest in a free, fair and credible manner.
Kalu was reacting to media reports that some unnamed 22 Senators of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were planning to leave the party for another opposition party because of the outcome of the Senate election.
Kalu, who spoke on a recorded video, said, ” Let me be honest with you, the election in the Senate was very transparent. Senator Akpabio won the election. It was free, it was fair.
“I congratulate the Clerk of the National Assembly, I congratulate the Clerk and all the Staff of the Senate. You know I cannot lie against my conscience. Akpabio won the election hands down.
“There was no controversy about who won the election. If there is anything any other person wants to say, that is their business. Akpabio, to my conscience, to my seeing and to my honour, won the election and we have since congratulated him,” he stated.
Speaking further, Kalu, who also aspired for the office of the president of the Senate said, “There are no two Senate in the history of the Senate. There is only one Senate. On the 13th of June, was the day we decided to have one Senate.
“There are no pro and anti-Akpabio Senators. Even Senator Abdulaziz Yari, understands we have to work with Akpabio. He is the Senate President. We have congratulated him and I am using this Sallah period to appeal to our people to come together and work as one Senate.”
Meanwhile, Political activists of Citizens Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPDN), have raised the alarm of plans by some aggrieved Senators to create a crisis in the 10th Senate.
The political leaders urged the lawmakers to sheath their sword while urging those who have emerged to ensure justice.
National secretary of the forum, Francis Okereke Wainwei, and other leaders, who addressed journalists in Abuja, called for calm, even as they vowed to expose the lawmakers if they pull through with their threats.
This is even as they called on the Senate President Akpabio to intervene and facilitate a befitting burial for the late President of the Senate, Joseph Wayas.
The political leaders said the late Wayas was the President of Nigeria’s Senate from 1979-1983.
“We are hereby appealing to Akpabio, President of the 10th Senate to intervene in the matter and resolve whatever challenges that have led to this unnecessary delay in giving our revered former Senate President a befitting burial.
“We are incurably optimistic that our uncommon transformational leader will heed our call and do the needful,” the leaders appealed.
Speaking on plans by aggrieved opposition Senators to disturb the peace of the Senate, Wainwei said such moves will be counterproductive.
He said the aggrieved senators were the ones that worked against the collective interest of the nation, when Akpabio was endorsed by the APC.
The Bayelsa-born rights activist said the Senators were the ones behind the candidature of Yari for Senate president as well as the campaigns and have vowed to continue pursuing their “unpatriotic, selfish and parochial interests by teaming up with the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to frustrate the leadership of the 10th Senate, even after losing out in a free and fair elections conducted in the public glare at the Senate.”
He warned them to refrain from “distracting the leadership of the Senate and allow it to focus on working harmoniously with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deliver quality and life-transforming projects and programmes to alleviate the pathetic plight of the long-suffering masses of this country.
“The era of politics is over and therefore, they should accept their defeat in good faith and give peace a chance. They can still contribute in enhancing the legislative process by making informed, robust and well-researched contributions on the floor of the Senate and In committee sessions, if their desire to take over the leadership of the Senate is purely a patriotic one, he added.”
Zeroing in on the former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the political leaders described him as a “desperate and serial political betrayer”, who frustrated Goodluck Jonathan as president and betrayed Tinubu in 2011 after he emerged Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“We totally reject the scheming of Tambuwal and Co, geared towards high-jacking the leadership of the minority parties in the Senate for selfish and destructive purposes. Tambuwal should not be allowed to emerge as the minority leader of the Senate because of his antecedents of selfish and acrimonious politics,” the leaders noted.
They said Tambuwal and some Senators were trying to recreate the acrimonious relationships between the National Assembly and the Executive that rocked the boat of governance in the past, slowed down the pace of governance and negatively affected the effectiveness of those administrations.
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