Findings have revealed that the leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have started lobbying some senators and leaders of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support the candidacy of Ahmed Lawan as the next Senate President.
The move is particularly to stop the PDP members in the Senate from either contesting or supporting other senators to occupy leadership positions in the 9th National Assembly.
APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, had earlier said the party did not need the opposition party’s votes to clinch the presiding and principal offices of the 9th Assembly.
Contrary to this, sources within the APC told PunchNG that the APC leaders are reversing their footsteps when they discovered that the division among their party members in the Senate was real.
There has been rising tension within the APC since two other senators, Danjuma Goje and Ali Ndume, indicated their interest in becoming the President of the Senate in the 9th Assembly.
Sequel to this, the senators have been moving round to gain the support of the opposition senators for their ambition.
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It was gathered that the party leaders’ decision to ‘anoint’ Lawan as Senate President without wide consultations had caused a great division within the party and among the senators-elect.
One of our correspondents learnt that both Goje, who was a two-term governor of Gombe State, and Ndume had been working behind the scenes to outsmart Lawan by secretly forming alliances with the PDP.
Speaking with newsmen, a source close to Goje noted that “Goje is a very experienced and tactical politician.
“He understands the politics of the chamber better and he knows that making noises on the pages of the newspapers would not help any of the aspirants.
“He is not disobeying the leadership of the party by making up his mind to contest against Lawan. He is only exercising his rights as a ranking senator whose geopolitical zone has been asked to produce the Senate President.”
While the source hints on alliance with PDP senators, he ruled out the possibility of the Gombe State-born lawmaker picking a PDP senator as his deputy.
Efforts made by Saturday PUNCH to speak with Goje to confirm or deny his interest in the Senate presidency and his alleged pact with the PDP failed as of the time of filing this report.
Some of the APC senators-elect who were loyal to Lawan were said to have held separate meetings with the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and Oshiomhole on the tension in the upper chamber.
The lawmakers reportedly opined that the best way to ensure victory for Lawan was to reach out to influential members of the PDP within the upper and lower chambers.
One of the sources said, “I can confirm to you that all of us are involved in the lobbying. We know that Goje and Ndume will contest against Lawan but we are not taking chances. We need PDP senators to win and we are already talking to them.”
On his part, Lawan had also told journalists during the week that he needed PDP votes and that he had started reaching out to them.