Controversy As APC Denies Zoning Senate Presidency To North-West

A news report that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has finally opted to zone the Senate Presidency position to the North West geo-political zone has stoked controversy in the ruling party.

The report, credited to some groups within the party, had indicated that the odds favoured Senator Barau Jibrin, who is one of the high-ranking senators having spent a term in the House of Representatives and now a third termer in the Senate.

The National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has however described the report as fake news.

Adamu, who addressed journalists at his Keffi, Nasarawa State, country home yesterday after casting his vote, declared that no such thing had taken place.

He wondered why politicians would be engaging in wishful thinking instead of awaiting the official pronouncement from the party.

He said: “The report about the zoning arrangements for the 10th National Assembly is fake news.  We have not done any zoning.

“I have said it times without number since Monday. I am still saying the same thing. No zoning has been established yet and agreed to. No zoning has been made public. Anybody who is saying anything is a rumour. It’s a wishful rumour.”

Also in a statement titled ‘APC Yet To Zone Key 10th National Assembly Positions’, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, described stories of the zoning arrangements as false and misleading.

Morka said: “The attention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been drawn to a report circulating on social media on purported zoning of key positions of the incoming 10th National Assembly. The report is false and misleading, and should be disregarded in its entirety.

“The party has not made any decision on zoning of positions or offices of the 10th Assembly.  As soon as a decision is made on zoning, it will be made public through the party’s official communications channel.”

The ‘false’ report had claimed that the decision on zoning was reached last Friday night by the leadership of the APC after consulting with the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“The decision takes pre-eminence over earlier suggestions in some quarters to zone the position to the South,” it further claimed.