Politics

10th NASS: APC Integrity Group Reiterates Call for Rejigging Party’s Zoning Arrangement

...Insists no Justification for Speaker, DSP Coming from One Region

From Kelechi Opara, Abuja

Ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, a good governance initiative known as the All Progressives Congress (APCIG) Integrity Group has expressed their rejection of the party’s zoning arrangement for presiding offices of the federal legislature.

The Group at a press conference in Abuja on Friday described as unfair, unjust and inequitable, the zoning of the positions of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Senate President to the North West.

It also condemned what it described as the recurring and open marginalization of some regions, as it warned that spell doom for the ruling party..

National Coordinator, Malam Dawu Mohammed and Secretary, Chisom Nwakanma, who spoke on behalf of the group insisted that no amount of argument can justify a zoning formula that rubbished inclusivity, mutual respect and oneness for a nation despite the growing fault lines.

It could be recalled that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party had earlier published a zoning arrangement in which it surprisingly zoned the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Senate President (DSP) to the North West, while the South South curiously left out.

According to the APC zoning arrangement, the Senators Godswill Akpabio and Jibril Barau were selected to be Senate Senate President and Deputy Senate while Tajudee Abbas and Benjamin Kalu from Kaduna and Abia States are to emerge the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.

The arrangement has generated intense controversy with lawmakers from the Red and Green Chambers resisting the move, insisting that the North Central must produce either the Speaker or the Deputy Senate President of the incoming legislature.

Accordingly to the group, the leadership of the party especially its national leadership “should have a rethink and save the APC from a possible implosion.

“We can have the offices zoned to give the various parts of the country a better sense of belonging to the country, other than what we have now”.

The Group urged the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC to consider the positive contributions of the North Central region to the growth, stability and consolidation of the party across the country, especially at the executive and National Assembly levels.

“Such contributions cannot be written without recalling the role of many competent and loyal party men across the North Central zone that was curiously omitted in the zoning agreement, the North Central has performed so well in retaining the governing party, and versatility lawmakers the zone can boast of”. Such inputs he added should earn them the position of Deputy Senate President, (DSP)”.

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