There are strong indications that the acrimony with preceded the contest for the Presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress( APC) where Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, emerged winner defeating Senate President Ahmed Lawan, who was the choice of some entrenched interests in the party and government, is yet to be over as those who lost out are currently mobilizing against the President- elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu on who becomes Senate President.
Sources privy to the various meetings of the party leadership, with the President-elect, his vice, serving senators and governors on the platform of the APC, disclosed that despite the decision of the president-elect on his preferred for the office of the 10th Senate President, the incumbent Senate President Ahmed Lawan was said to have vowed not to see president elect’s choice succeed him.
It would be recalled that weeks leading to the APC presidential primaries, the National chairman of the party, Senator Abdulahi Adamu, had called a meeting of the National Working Commmittee (NWC) of the party, where he unilaterally announced Senator Ahmed Lawan as the choice of President Muhammadu Buhari for the Presidency.
Unfortunately for Adamu and his collaborators, the Northern governors like Governors Nasir El- rufai, Abdulahi Ganduje, Atiku Bagudu, among numerous others had stormed Aso Rock to convince the president that power be returned to the south and that the president should encourage it because there was an unwritten agreement which must be honored by the North.
It was also gathered that during the final days of campaigns for the Presidential ticket, aspirants were out to convince others to step down for them.
Sources in the know of this development disclosed that discussions took place between Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senate President Ahmed Lawan on the day of the primaries and Lawan asked Akpabio to step down for him with a promise to make him the Senate President and five other Ministries for his appointees,
including the Petroleum Ministry. It was learnt that at the end of the discussion, Akpabio chose to step down from the race for Senator Bola Tinubu, whom he considered the best for the country.
Trouble started as soon as Akpabio got the nod of the President-elect for the office of the Senate President and he decided to visit Senate President Ahmed Lawan for his blessings with other four serving Senators of the 9th Assembly and Senators-elect into the 10th Assembly.
Senator Lawan was said to have bluntly refused to support Akpabio as his successor but vowed to nominate a candidate against him, asserting that if his option of nominating a candidate failed and Akpabio got elected, he would ensure that he is impeached within one year.
His outburst and a boast of playing God was said to have infuriated the Senators that accompanied Akpabio, as they all felt embarrassed that a fellow Muslim brother could be that unforgiving.
Sources at the said meeting disclosed that some of the ‘sins’ Lawan claimed Akpabio committed against him were so irrelevant even as Akpabio took time to explain all of them one after the other to satisfaction of all.
According to the source, some of the reasons Lawan has refused to support Akpabio as his successor include, making statements against the Senate and the institution of the National Assembly when he was a Minister, being instrumental to the imprisonment of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi of Delta State and Senator Bassey Albert of Akwa Ibom State.
Lawan, it was reliably gathered has recruited northern power establishments to do all that is possible to stop Akpabio and canvassing for the return of the Senate President to the North. He is said to have argued that having a Muslim President, Vice President, Senate President and Chief Justice of the Federation would not be an aberration if it happened.
It was also learnt that the Senate President is currently reaching out to some serving senators that lost their re-election to senators-elect from the opposition parties who are supporting the president elect’s choice, with a promise to ensure that they lose at the tribunal for supporting Akpabio.
The threat of Lawan and his group of which the National Chairman of the party, Abdulahi Adamu, according to sources is intended to frustrate the President-elect from having a stabled National Assembly from the commencement of his administration, by wanting to foist a Senate President on him that would be anti government and possibly from the North West, are all landmines put in place for the president-elect not to succeed.
” They want the Senate President to be zoned to the North West and claiming that having the top four offices occupied by same faith therefore setting a trap for the president elect. But several Senators from the North are of the opinion that the Senate President be zoned to the south south as endorsed by the president elect for stability and national cohesion,” the source stated.