The preferred candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions in the 10th House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu, on Tuesday, stormed the APC’s national secretariat for a meeting with the APC leadership.
OsunDaily News understands Abbas and Kalu along with about 30 other lawmakers arrived in three white Coaster buses around 2.18 pm.
The meeting with the APC NWC led by the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu is a closed-door meeting and it is said to be related to the zoning arrangement that was announced on May 8 by the party.
It would be recalled that the zoning arrangement announced by the APC for the 10th National Assembly leadership saw the position of Senate president go to the immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and Deputy Senate President to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Jibrin Barau.
In the House of Representatives, the seat of Speaker was zoned to Abass, while Kalu representing Bende federal constituency of Abia State, clinched the Deputy Speaker slot.
The decision however sparked outrage from other aspirants in the race with some of them vowing to press on with their aspirations despite the party’s position.
Sources quoted regarding the ongoing meeting between Abbas, Kalu, and the APC leadership disclosed that they may have come to brief the national chairman and the NWC members on the level of progress as part of the ongoing consultation in wooing their colleagues and other lawmakers from other parties to support their candidacy.
The meeting was still in progress at the time this report was filed.
