Senator Ali Ndume has said that President Bola Tinubu told him that Senator Godswill Akpabio is his preferred candidate for the President of the 10th Senate.
Ndume said this on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
In May, the All Progressives Congress had zoned four principal positions for the 10th National Assembly and named elected lawmakers to occupy each position.
The zoning arrangement is as follows: Senate President – South-South, Senator Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); and Deputy Senate President – North West, Senator Barau Jibrin (Kano).
Others are the Speaker of the House of Representatives (North-West) – Abass Tajudeen (Kaduna); and Deputy Speaker, South East-Hon. Ben Kalu (Abia).
Ndume who is representing Borno South at the Senate that the President won’t change his stance on the leadership of the 10th Senate.
According to the lawmaker who has been in the National Assembly for 20 years, out of the 109 elected Senators in the red chamber,
Admitting strong competition from the camp of the former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, Ndume revealed that as75 out of 109 members have already queued behind the ambition of Akpabio as of today.
“As of today, I am telling you we have 75 senators. All advantages are on our side. We have the support of the party, we have the support of the president, and most importantly we have the support of most of the senators. These senators signed up to endorse our programme,” Ndume said.
While maintaining confidence in the ability of the Akpabio camp to carry the day during the election, the Borno lawmaker did not rule out surprises as he acknowledged that people can change their minds at the last minute.
“Let’s say that some people will jump over at the last minute, that can happen, but I am very confident. I don’t want to be overconfident because people can change their minds, but we have a better candidate.
We have two candidates that are in front now, that is Yari and Akpabio and our candidate has all the advantages over the other candidate, politically and intellectually, we have an added advantage,” he stated.