10th NASS: Yari’s supporters ask Tinubu, APC NWC to denounce zoning list

Supporters of a former Governor of Zamfara State and aspirant for the senate presidency of the incoming 10th National Assembly, Abdulaziz Yari, has asked the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to denounce the zoning list released recently.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday in Abuja, the convener of Women For Yari Movement, Comrade Sofiya Ibrahim Ogoh, said that rather than foster national unity and heal the land after a “bitterly fought” 2023 general elections, the APC’s zoning list had divided further the party and the country.

The NWC had picked Senator Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) and Senator Barau Jibrin (Kano) as preferred candidates for senate president and deputy senate president respectively. It equally picked Tajudeen Abbas (Kaduna) and Ben Kalu (Abia) as preferred candidates for speaker and deputy speaker respectively on Tinubu’s recommendation.

But Yari’s supporters said the zoning list had complicated matters in the APC, among the senators-elect and members-elect of the 10th National Assembly, generated huge controversies and tension among Nigerians and should be denounced by the party’s top echelon for free and fair contests.

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Comrade Sofiya said, “Party supremacy cannot be a pretext to serve out injustice. The Women for Yari Movement called on the APC NWC to withdraw that discredited zoning list and allow a free and fair contest for the leadership of the 10th senate.

“The Women for Yari Movement urges the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to prevail on his inner circle to back off from imposing leaders on the incoming 10th NASS lest their interloping becomes thea recipe for a disastrous start to the Tinubu presidency.”

We’ll deliver Abbas, Kalu – Members-elect

Meanwhile a caucus of members-elect, tagged Joint Task-10th Assembly has promised to deliver Abbas and Kalu as speaker and deputy speaker respectively.

The Joint Task-10th Assembly is a group formed by members-elect from eight political parties that won the recently conducted elections for the House of Representatives: APC, PDP, LP, NNPP, APGA, SDP, ADC and YPP.

Secretary of the group, Aliyu Sani Madaki (NNPP, Kano), while speaking on an Arise TV programme yesterday, said members had resolved to give block votes to Abbas and Kalu who were the preferred candidates of the APC.

He added that the G7, a group of other aspirants who opposed the adoption of Abbas and Kalu as candidates, was not a threat to the emergence of the APC’s consensus candidates because “their ranks would soon deplete.”

“If you look at it, the Joint Task itself is a kind of gang up. I’m from NNPP, the co-chair (Chinda) is a PDP member, and the chairman is of the APC. A few days back, a greater chunk of the opposition came together and endorsed Abbas. I can bet you the 10th assembly intends to work as a group, and on that day, we will work as a group and speak as one.