There were indications that the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and other party leaders have failed to convince Senator Ali Ndume to drop his bid for the Senate presidency.
It was gathered that leadership of the party and some influential senators met last week and decided to reach out to Ndume, who is contesting the position against Senator Ahmad Lawan.
However, Ndume was said to have rejected moves by Tinubu to make him drop his ambition.
Similarly, a senator confided in PunchNG that a group of Pro-Lawan senators-elect who travelled to Maiduguri on Friday to meet Governor Kashim Shettima, also a senator-elect, but were disappointed when they could not meet with him.
The senator said, “The governor, who was probably aware of the Pro-Lawan senators’ visit, travelled out of the country before their arrival.
“The lawmakers decided to meet the deputy governor, who is not a stakeholder in the project. During the brief session, the deputy governor told the lawmakers that Shettima had travelled to Saudi Arabia.”
It was learnt that the pro-Lawan senators returned to Abuja on Saturday evening.
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The outgoing Borno governor, Shettima, who is from the same state with Ndume, is one of the major backers of the former Senate leader for the position.
The pro-Lawan senators-elect would have used the opportunity of their visit to convince Shettima on the need to respect the choice of the party by supporting Lawan.
In the same vein, the leadership of the ruling APC is at the crossroad following the insistence of some senator-elect to contest the Senate presidency despite adopting Lawan.
Tinubu has been quoted as saying those not in support of the party’s zoning arrangement for the National Assembly positions were free to leave the party.
While there are speculations that the party may expel any member who decides to move against its stand on the leadership of the National Assembly, a member of the APC National Working Committee, said “the truth is that for now, the issue of expulsion for our members who are threatening to move against the party’s choice is not on the card.”
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