The national leaders and national caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have officially zoned the office of the Senate President to the North central geo-political zone, while the Speaker of the House of Representatives was zoned to the North-east geo-political zone, it has emerged.
A source at an APC meeting which held in Abuja from Thursday till the wee-hours of Friday told Thisday that the party leaders accepted in principle a prototype office sharing formula that would satisfy all vested interests within the party.
“After deft negotiations, the leaders agreed to cede the position of the Senate President to the North-central and that of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North-east. They also endorsed a zoning arrangement that would see the South-west producing the Deputy Senate President and South-south, Deputy Speaker,” the source said.
With that agreed, the current minority leader in the Senate, George Akume from Benue State and Senator Bukola Saraki from Kwara State are in pole position to be elected to the Senate Presidency. The office of the Majority Leader of the Senate to the South-west.
The source disclosed that the position of the Speaker was allotted to the North-east following a strong lobby by leaders from the zone. It had earlier being zoned to the South West.
The office of the Chairman of its Board of Trustees (BoT) was zoned to Adamawa State, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar expected to be chosen.
The issue of ministerial appointments was also considered at the meeting which had former governor of Lagos State Bola Tinubu in attendance.
According to the Thisday source, the South-east did not get any position in the current allocation, but another source who is a top member of the APC told Thisday that the zone will be compensated with other appointments.
The issue of ministerial appointments was also considered at the meeting which had former governor of Lagos State Bola Tinubu in attendance.
However, another source at the Abuja meeting said the APC chieftains could not conclude deliberations on the ministerial appointments as it was decided that stakeholders in the states and zonal levels should go back to the areas to hold consultations on the matter.
It was resolved that the state chapters of the party would each nominate three persons for ministerial consideration and are to submit same to the party through the Vice Chairmen and Deputy National Chairmen on or before Tuesday next week.
Another meeting of the party leadership is scheduled to hold on Tuesday where discussions are expected to be finalized, the source said.
