NASS: 51 APC Senators, 191 Reps have signed to elect Lawan, Gbajabiamila —Oyo lawmakers

Coast appears clear for the emergence of Senator Ahmed Lawan and Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively following their endorsement by majority of the lawmakers elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

An All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator representing Oyo North, Fatai Buhari, on Saturday disclosed that 51 out of 66 APC Senators had signed an endorsement list for Lawan with an assurance that the number would grow when Senators, who have travelled out of the country for lesser hajj returned.

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Buhari’s assertion, which was made on a political programme on Fresh FM monitored in Ibadan, came even as a House of Representatives member-elect from the state, Musiliudeen Akinremi, South-West coordinator of new Reps-elect for Gbajabiamila, claimed that 191 of his colleagues had also endorsed Gbajabiamila as Speaker.

Lawan and Gbajabiamila are APC’s choices as National Assembly leaders, even though a couple of other lawmakers are threatening to slug it out with the duo in disregard to the party’s directive.

 According to Buhari, “The difference between the June 11 election and that of 2015 is that APC and its Senators are smarter now. The party is in charge. Unlike in 2015 when the numbers were close, the difference in number now makes APC to be in a comfortable lead.

“We can go to bed with 51 Senators and wait for those who travelled outside the country to join to elect Senator Lawan. We did not sign [an endorsement list] in 2015. There was no cohesion in 2015, but now there is. In 2015, the Senate Presidency was not zone, but now APC has zoned it to the North-East and the Speakership to the South-West,” Buhari said.

Speaking of Gbajabiamila, Akinremi told journalists after the meeting late Friday night their camp would continue to talk to others from across the six geopolitical zones, boasting that Gbajabiamila might emerge unopposed.

Akinremi’s position was reinforced by a statement from John Adaramola, Similola Ayeni and Tony Okoye on behalf of Gbaja for Speaker Civil Society Coalition, who said they were convinced that Gbajabiamila’s victory had been sealed and waiting to be delivered.

In a press statement made available to journalists in Ibadan, the group said “no force can stop the well-deserved victory of Gbajabiamila and we urge all so-called Speakership aspirants, including Honourables Wase, Betara, John Dyegh, Bago, Babangida and Namdas to step down and get integrated into the Gbajabiamila structure before it is too late to do so.

“We immensely thank Senator Bola Tinubu for his fatherly roles, visionary leadership and selfless projections into the future; if necessary, we urge him to consider jettisoning political calculations involving second fiddle roles for Lagos State in the Senate, and to, instead, focus exclusively on the House of Representatives’ leadership race.

“This will not only further convince all Nigerians of the rightness of our collective cause; it will also go a long way to silent those who erroneously ascribe his political permutations to a selfish agenda.

“We also urge outgoing Speaker Dogara and the entire leadership of the House not to bite the finger that fed them and helped raise them to current pedestals, but to facilitate the smooth transition to a more vibrant and progressive era of House leadership under Gbajabiamila,” the group said.