The All Progressives Congress (APC) has beshielded its choice for principal officers of the 10th National Assembly, POLITICS NIGERIA reports.
The party said the preferred people to occupy the offices which was approved at its National Working Committee (NWC) meeting held in Abuja few days ago was based on the principle of equity, and national interest.
Felix Morka, the ruling party(APC) spokesperson made this known yesterday on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, said his party consulted widely with the greater majority of the National Assembly members-elect before the announcement.
Morka who defended the party’s choice of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the Senate president and others ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June said the South-South zone which Akpabio represents has not produced a Senate president since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999.
Quoting him, “I am from the South-South and I don’t see why the South-South is ineligible for consideration. After all, no Senate president has come from that region since 1999, since this dispensation.
“We haven’t had that. Other regions have had some representations. The South East for instance, five of them held that position from the region. That does not mean that the South East is ineligible or unfit to produce the Senate president; every region of this country can.
“But there is something else that we are concerned about; it’s called national interest, it’s called equity, it’s called inclusion, it’s called a sense of ownership,” he said.
Recall The All progressive congress national working committee had on Monday zoned the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
The NWC zoned the Senate president to the South-South, Senator Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); deputy Senate president to the North West, Senator Barau Jubrin (Kano).
And others are speaker of the House of Representatives (North West) – Abass Tajudeen (Kaduna), deputy speaker South East – Ben Kalu (Abia).
