10th NASS: S/E senators- Elect endorse sen Akpabio for Senate president, Sen Barau for Deputy President of Senate

South-East Senators have endorsed Sen. God’swill Akpabio (APC-Akwa-Ibom) and Sen. Barau Jibrin (APC-Kano) as candidates for the position of Senate President and Deputy Senate President of the 10th Assembly.

The endorsement is coming few hours to the inauguration of the 10th Assembly on Tuesday.

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo said this on Monday when he briefed news men after a meeting with 15 senators-elect of the zone.

He said: “It was a meeting of the south-east caucus of the Senate. All the 15 of them attended the meeting

“We resolved to tow the line of the preferred candidate of the party in the Senate to support Akpabio and Barau.

“As it has to do with the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President, the ruling party with more senators-elect of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have preferred and recommended Sen.

“We have already agreed that we will vote according to the recommendation of our great party.

“We don’t want to go into any controversy of going into unnecessary blind opposition.

“We want to work under a constructive partnership across party lines in the south-east region and that is actually my position.

“It is a good development for the region and for the unity of the nation.”

Uzodimma who is also Chairman, Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF)
said that democracy was all about engagements, discussions and dialogues.

“People are entitled to have aspirations. Because we are practicing partisan democracy, it is always assumed that loyalty to the party will always prevail.

“Wether you are Labour Party, PDP APC, south-east is south-east and leadership is leadership.

“We think we will be more organised for the interest and unity of the country to work with the ruling party so our people will also have the opportunity to get dividends of democracy.”

On any engagement with Sen. Abdul’aziz Yari (APC-Zamfara), a top contender for the Senate Presidency, Uzodimma said of course.

“It’s engagement it’s a continuous thing. It is work in progress. In fact I’m leaving now for an important meeting also to engage some senators-elect with opposing views.

“As a matter of fact, the rule of the business is, you will disagree first before you will agree. So haven disagreed all these while, between now and tomorrow morning, we will all agree,”governor Uzodimma said.