Akpabio Not Our Candidate For Senate Presidency – ACF

By Ayodele Oni

Opposition to emergence of Senator Godswill Akpabio as President of the tenth senate is mounting as the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) said he is not a candidate of the Forum.

A Coalition of Northern Groups had earlier endorsed Akpabio for the Senate top job.

A member of the ACF, Alhaji Musa Saidu in a statement in Abuja on Sunday made the clarification.

Saidu, also the leader of the Arewa Community in Southern, Nigeria said that endorsing Akpabio for the Senate Presidency would spell doom for Northern Nigeria.

“We hereby dissociate ourselves from the endorsement of Sen. Godswill Akpabio for the Senate Presidency by a coalition of Northern groups.

“The Coalition is not speaking for the North, it is just speaking for itself.

“No true Northern group will want to endorse Akpabio for a sensitive position like that of Senate President because he is not friendly with the North.

“We are the people who know Akpabio, because we are resident in the South, we know those who are friendly with the Northern people and Akpabio is actually not one of them.

“I want to condemn the endorsement in its entity because it was done out of ignorance.

“It is also possible that the groups were given some inducement to endorse Akpabio.

“I want to say that the Northern people are not beggars that will be endorsing people who are not friendly with them because of inducement.

“Why should the All Progressives Congress (APC) be bent on zoning the 10th Senate Presidency to the South, when we have competence hands in the the North.

“The North-West gave the APC the largest votes in the Feb. 25 presidential election, why not consider somebody from the zone.

“I think it’s time for the party to reward the zone for the massive votes rather than start looking for somebody from the South as Senate President.”