Zamfara: Judgment won’t affect my chances — Lawan

Senate Majority Leader, who is also seeking the Presidency of the incoming Ninth Senate, said on Saturday that the judgment by the Supreme Court which granted victory to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) would not affect his chances of emerging the Senate President in June.

The Senate Leader, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja, stated that whereas the development amounted to a setback for the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC), his camp was not worried because it had reached out to all Senators across party divides.

According to him, APC is still capable of producing the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives despite the loss in Zamfara.

He also stated that as a contestant for the post of Senate President,  he had been selling himself to all Senators across the geopolitical zones and party lines, adding that the lawmakers were receptive to his message and were willing to give him a chance.

He said: “The Supreme Court judgment on Zamfara State was a setback to the ruling party because the APC lost three senators and seven or eight in the House of Representatives.

“This leaves us with a new set of numbers of representation in the Ninth Assembly.  The APC had 65 senators before the judgment, now the APC has 62. PDP now has 44 because it had 41 before Friday’s judgment, while the Young Progressive Party has one.

“As it is now, there are two cases that are yet to be determined in Imo State. The case of that of the outgoing governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha and that of Senator Ben Uwajumogu which we are anticipating will be won by the APC. If we have these two, we will have 64 from the APC which makes us to be in the majority.

“But, for me, the issue is not the distribution or the majority. What is important is our ability to come together to work for the interest of Nigerians in every part of the country. We have the responsibility to work for the betterment of Nigerians because, if there is a crisis, there wouldn’t be a distinction between an APC member or a PDP member. The crisis will affect all of us,” he said.

The Senate Leader also denied reports which indicated that Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid in the world.

According to him, Nigerian lawmakers have never received jumbo pay since the return of democratic rule in 1999.

Contrary to insinuations in some quarters, Senator Lawan said that he was not imposed on the Ninth Senate by the ruling party.

He said that his party has only recommended him as the candidate for the Senate presidency, adding that he could not afford to take either the party or the Senators for granted.

He also stated that if he failed to live up to expectation, the party can review its stand at anytime adding that in a democratic setting, the vote of every senator matters to him.

Speaking on his agenda for the Senate, he said that the assembly must fight for Nigerian people at all times, while refusing to maintain an adversarial stance against other arms of government.

He also said that besides making good laws and oversight, the assembly must also fight against corruption.