…..We conquered religion, tribalism- Ndume
Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Jibrin Barau emerged as the President and the Deputy President of the Senate respectively shortly after the 10th upper legislative chamber was inaugurated on Tuesday but more revelations have surfaced about how the new leaders of the Senate secured their victory.
Akpabio scored 63 votes to defeat Senator Abdulaziz Yari, who got 46 votes but Iwitnesslive has reliably learnt the forces behind the former Zamfara State Governor and the camp of Akapabio had to dig deep to ensure victory on Tuesday.
The ruling All Progressives Congress had zoned the Senate presidency to the South-South and endorsed Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) for the position, while the deputy Senate presidency was zoned to the North-West. Barau, from Kano State, was tipped for the position.
However, the development sparked controversy within APC with Yari leading a group of rebels plotting to thwart the decision of their party.
Iwitnesslive reliably learnt that Yari enlisted the active support of prominent businessmen, foremost traditional rulers, technocrats, bankers and opposition politicians.
“Yari and some of his senators colleagues who support him have extensive networks and many topmost monarchs especially in the north actively worked for him. You could see that the margin of victory was not that much and I can tell you that money played a big part in the whole process; many of the senators were swayed by money especially the first-timers and apart from the fact that Yari is ‘well-loaded’ when it comes to money, some of his friends in business and private sector supported him,” a source said.
The behind the scene moves by the camps of both contenders were intriguing as they both prevented being outsmarted.
Deputy Director-General of the Akpabio/Jibrin Campaign Organisation, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, said the pro-Akpabio senators, arrived early to prevent a repeat of the 2015 scenario whereby senators loyal to former Senate President Bukola Saraki kept vigil at the complex to install him while other senators were at the International Conference Centre in Abuja to meet with former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Bamidele said: “I have not been able to sleep for the last 48 hours in order to ensure that Senator Godswill Akpabio emerged as Senate President.
“We entered the National Assembly Complex around 4am in order to avert what happened in 2015. The victory wouldn’t have been possible if not the efforts of the immediate past Senate President.”
Sources said pro-Yari senators-elect, who also demonstrated their determination to install him, mobilised themselves and also stormed the complex very early.
Giving credence to this last night, leader of the Akpabio campaign team, Senator Ali Ndume said that after a thorough check on the list of 72 senators projected to vote for Akpabio by his strategist, the leaders of the group lowered their projection to a minimum 62 because the loyalty of 10 were in doubt.
Ndume said: “The emergence of Senator Akpabio was not a magic, but more of politics. We thank God, it came out the way we wanted it. This is good for the country, the party and for the people. And now, I feel that this singular act of today gives all Nigerians a sense of belonging.”
Ndume said the election has also shown that religion does not matter in governance, warning politicians against playing religious cards.
He added: “If people do a critical analysis of the way the election played out, you’ll realise that some of the things that people out there talk about do not really matter. For instance, I am a Muslim, but I campaigned vigorously for the emergence of Senator Godswill Akpabio.
“On the other side, Senator Cliff (Elisha Aboh) led the campaign for Senator Yari. He is a Christian from Adamawa State, seconded by Jimoh Ibrahim from Ondo State.
“So, you can see that religion that people harped on is not the real thing people put into consideration. It is all about interest.
“And also interestingly, we have 54 Christian senators out of the 109, while the Muslims are 55. But the vote turned out to be 63 against 46.”
Explaining the factors that aided Akpabio’s victory, Ndume said: “As of Tuesday’s morning, after a critical analysis of the situation, we were sure of clinching 62, but we ended up getting 63. So, many factors helped.
“One, the party and the president had a preferred candidate.
“Because this president is an experienced politician, he deployed his foot soldiers to complement our efforts and that made a difference.
“He visited, pleaded with some people to buy into Akpabio’s candidature. He has his reasons for doing so. That is politics.”
