Senate Presidency: Allow Senators to Pick Their Leaders, Group Tells Presidency And APC

– Group faults endorsement of Lawal as Senate President.

– The group says Ndume is the most qualified for the seat.

The endorsement of Senate Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan, as the preferred choice for the office of Senate President of the 9th Assembly by the All Progressives Congress National Working Committee and the Presidency, has been faulted by a group called National Coalition in Defence of Democracy.

With the number three office of the land zoned to the North-East, Senator Ahmed Lawan from Yobe state, Senator Ali Ndume from Borno state and former Gombe state governor, Danjuma Goje appeared to be the top contenders for the post.

Speaking with newsmen on Monday in Abuja, Ambassador Auwal Alhassan Gama, the National Coordinator of the group said the decision by the leadership of the party and the Presidency to zone to an individual was unconstitutional and meant to disenfranchise other qualified candidates from the North-East geopolitical zone.

While describing the decision to zone an office to an individual as unconstitutional considering the pedigree of the 109 senators, he said they should be allowed to pick their leader.

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This he said will ensure mutual respect and confidence between the executive and legislative arm of government.

“We don’t want what happened between 2015 to date to reenact itself, where there was a cold war between the two strategic arms of government.

“The forum observed among other things that one of the reasons why the present government under the able leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR did not meet up the expectations of many Nigerians in the areas of Infrastructure and human development was a result of the sour relationship between the Executive and the Legislative arms of Government. This has created setbacks in the areas of non-full implementation of the budget and alteration on a key intended project by the government.”

The forum further noted that the former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume is the most qualified for the office, and admonished the APC NWC and the Presidency to review its earlier endorsement of Senator Lawan.

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