As agitations by Senators-elect from the North-East for senate presidency gather momentum, the PDP senators have thrown their weight behind Senator Danjuma Goje for the position of senate presidency.
Danjuma Goje
Goje, 62, was the governor of Gombe State from May 2003 to May 2011 before heading to the senate under the PDP. He defected to the APC after disagreements with incumbent governor, Hassan Dankwambo. He was re-elected in the just concluded election into the senate and represents Gombe Central Senatorial District in the upper chambers. Goje, apparently, still have strong political ties with his former party, the PDP.
According to Post Nigeria, the 49 PDP Senators are working hard to ensure that their candidate carries the day just to disorganise the APC plan.
Last week, the APC leadership failed to reach a consensus on their zoning formula and the bickering over the zoning arrangement in the APC has pitched party chieftains against each other as former Lagos State governor,Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reportedly hijacked most of the positions.
The North East senators are reportedly ready for a showdown if the Senate Presidency is not zoned to them and the PDP is keen to capitalize on the in-fighting in the APC to determine who will emerge as the Senate President.
The North-East senators are of the argument that the North Central should not be in the struggle, having been in the saddle since 2007.
“In the spirit of cohesion and sense of unity, the office should be zoned to the North-East which has been left out in the cold since 2007,” one of the Senators from North-East stated.
Meanwhile, a group named the Northern Democratic Factualist recently endorsed the candidature of former Goje, as Senate President.
The group’s National Coordinator, Sani Liman Kila, and National Secretary Yahaya Madobi, described Goje as the most qualified person to occupy the position, even as they insisted that non-else was as qualified as Senator Goje.
“It’s obvious that someone with a dynamic personality and full of experience like Goje is needed to represent the region in which according to our findings, no one qualifies better than him.
“With the support given by North-West and Goje particularly regarding the brilliant idea of merging the opposition parties to form All Progressives Congress, APC that won in the recent Presidential election,”he said.
Sources say the APC are wary of the plot of the PDP and are working towards ensuring that all interests in the party are taken care of.
“We are worried about the aftermath of zoning the Senate Presidency to the North-East. We want to carefully work on ways to manage the effect especially from Senators Saraki and Akume,” an APC source said.
He added ‘’The challenge is that if the Senate Presidency goes to the North-East, it means the North Central has lost out because the only office that the zone might have is either Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives or Majority Leader of the Senate.
‘’This may not be enough to placate the North-Central, Akume, Saraki and the Amaechi camp. The Rivers Governor is still embittered that his camp lost the Vice Presidency.’’
The election of the President of the Eighth Senate will take place on June 4 when the new Assembly will be inaugurated. The clock ticks and the plot thickens as we approach a new Senate.
Meanwhile, the candidate of the APC in the Taraba State just concluded re-run governorship poll, Aisha Alhassan, has rejected the results of the poll.
Alhassan, popularly called ‘Mama Taraba’, while addressing a press conference in Jalingo shortly after the announcement of the results,described the entire elections process as “daylight robbery.”
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