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As the June 11 inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly inches closer, supporters of one of the contestants for the office of Senate President, Senator Ali Ndume, have said there is no pressure on him, from President Muhammadu Buhari, or the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to step down for other aspirants.
APC had presented senate Majority Leader, Ahmad Lawan, and Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, as preferred candidates for senate president and speaker.
Despite this, Senator Ali Ndume has declared interest to vie for the senate president position.
Also, Umar Bago (Niger), Nkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia) and John Dyegh (Benue) are in the race for speaker in the House of Representatives.
Contrary to reports that Buhari has prevailed on senators Danjuma Goje and Ndume to step down, a source close to Ndume, who declined to be named, said “there was no such meeting where Mr. President asked Ndume and Goje to drop their ambitions for Lawan.
“There was no such meeting and from what I know of President Buhari there is not going to be any such meeting.
“The president, historically, has never interfered in an electoral process at any time and, at any level, right from his time in the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC).
“In fact, he never interfered in his own election. As he has said before, he belongs to everybody and he belongs to no particular person.
“And, this case of the Senate cannot be an exception because we know him tobeamanofhisword,”he said.
The Ndume man said president Buhari’s spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, had earlier issued a statement, long ago, that the president would not interfere in the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly, which was further reinforced by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly, Senator Ita Enang.
He said no APC official has also asked Ndume to quit the race, and declared: “Even the party chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, clearly stated on ‘Hard Copy’ that they are not imposing Lawan on APC senators and that APC senators-elect who wish to contest are free to do so.
“Therefore, the party or the president cannot just come out to force any senator to drop his ambition for Lawan.”
He, however, said if the contestants eventually decide, “through consensus, that’s a different thing,” and added: “so, this idea that the president will call the three contestants and ask them to drop their ambition for Ahmad Lawan is not true.”
He alleged that there was a desperate move to want to amend the rules.
“They sponsored protests to demand amendment of the Senate Standing Rules, especially the rule on secret voting, forgetting that it was derived from the Constitution.”
Last month, at a meet- ing of returning senators and senators-elect, with the president, at the State House, Oshiomhole announced the decision of the party hierarchy to adopt Lawan and Gbajabiamila as the party’s candidates for president of the Senate and speaker of the.
Ndume, kicked against the decision, which he said was “made without consultation.”
He dismissed it as unconstitutional and indicated he would challenge it.
