ABUJA, JANUARY 17, 2017 – New Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan and Whip, Prof. Sola Adeyeye, yesterday refuted reports of alleged subterranean moves by the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus to move against Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.
Speaking to newsmen when he led some principal officers to the party’s national secretariat on a courtesy call on the National Working Committee (NWC) members in Abuja, Lawan described his election as an elixir for stability within the Senate and the party.
Lawan, a representative of Yobe North, was last Tuesday picked by the caucus to replace Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC Borno South).
He stressed that with his emergency, the eluded peace had finally returned to both parties, adding all stakeholders would now work to meet the expectations of Nigerians.
His words: “My election is a part of the yearning for party supremacy. The significance here is the unity and stability in the Senate, the unity of our party, and of course this will transform into the high level of productivity for our government.
“It will consolidate the unity and togetherness within our party and will consolidate unity of APC Senate Caucus and of course, we will now be operating on the same page.”
Adeyeye described the report as mere speculation, noting that such was not new in politics.
In the meantime, the reported call on Ekweremadu to jump ship in order to save his seat may have begun to bear the APC apart in his home state of Enugu.
While its state chairman, Mr. Ben Nwoye came out publicly yesterday to distance the party from a statement credited to its Publicity Secretary, Mrs. Kate Offor that the Deputy Senate President should stay put in the PDP, the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, however, backed Offor.
Offor, had in a statement on Sunday in Enugu, urged Ekweremadu to remain in his party to “help clear the mess he contributed in creating there.”
But Nwoye told newsmen that the party was opened to all genuine democrats and progressives in the Southeast, adding that its three-week registration exercise in the zone was “open to all and sundry, including Ekweremadu without any tariff.”
He hinted that notable PDP leaders in the state, including former Senate President Ken Nnamani and erstwhile Speaker of the House of Assembly, Eugene Odoh, had joined the party.
