10th Assembly: North Central APC Stakeholders Demand Speakership Position

A group known as North Central All Progressive Congress (APC) Stakeholders have asked the President Elect, Ahmed Tinubu and National Working Committee of the APC not deliberately exclude the North Central Zone from the Principal officers position of the National Assembly.

This was just as the Stakeholders demanded that the Speakership position of the House of Representatives should be given to the Zone.

The group made the appeal at a world Press Conference in Abuja.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Rev. Dominic Alancha demanded for Justice, Equity and Fairness for the Zone

“As you may have known, our group, the North Central APC STAKEHOLDERS was formed in 2015, stands to defend the tenets of democracy and to uphold the rule of law by ensuring fairness and justice to all and at all times. These noble aims, it has been our lot to commend acts that promote the rule of law and social justice and to speak out whenever we notice acts capable of undermining or threatening our hard earned democracy and to advocate for fairness and balance at all times.
We are again compelled to invoke our mandate to address you this morning due to an anomaly we have detected in the direction APC leadership in the country is taking in the course of zoning key offices in the 10th Assembly which we feel may not augur well for our democracy. We are constrained to register our disappointment and to protest the decision of the APC Leadership to zone two Presiding Positions Deputy Senate President and Speaker in the 10th National Assembly in favour of the Northwest to the total exclusion of the North Central and other zones in the country”. Rev Alancha said.

He said that “Having won the 2023 presidential elections fair and square, we had expected the Leadership of APC to be guided by the principle of justice and fairness in zoning leadership positions in the parliament and had thought that factors like commitment to the success of the party, level of contributions and the need for fairness, Equity and justice to all would guide the decision.

“What we have seen emerging from the decision of the APC however, is a situation of total disregard to Justice Equity and fairness where personal interests has been put forward thereby bringing chaos and conflict in a situation that would have otherwise gone smoothly if national interest has been the guiding principle.

“While the decision of the APC leaders to zone the Senate Presidency to the South South and the Deputy Senate Presidency to the North West conforms to the expectations of most Nigerians because it takes care of zones that are yet to be represented in the composition of the leadership of the next administration we cannot say the same for the zoning of other leadership positions for the 10th Assembly.

“We therefore take strong exceptions to the bid to zone the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North West zone because that will imply undue favouritism, lack of fairness and the marginalisation of other zones.

“Because, while the North West will go home with two key positions in the National Assembly, the North Central and the South East would be totally excluded from the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.

“This to us seems to be a deliberate act of provocation to the North Central zone which has contributed so much to the success of the APC as a party and to the victory of President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“In the last elections, the North Central apart from giving the APC presidential ticket an overwhelming number of votes, gave a greater number of parliamentary and governorship seats to the APC.

“The APC won in Kwara, Niger, Benue and Kogi in the presidential elections and
in the governorship elections, the North-central with six states gave the APC the four states of Benue, Niger, Nasarawa and Kwara, while that of Kogi which is still in the hands of the APC is pending meaning it lost only one state to the opposition parties.

“In the parliamentary elections the APC clinched majority seats in Kwara, Kogi, Niger and Nasarawa states and Benue where it won two out of the three senatorial seats and 10 of the 11 House of Representatives seats leaving the PDP with only one seat each in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

“Compare this with the North West where the APC failed to secure the key states in the Nort” he said

Rev Alancha also said that the group the North Central APC STAKEHOLDERS was formed in 2015, to defend the tenets of democracy and to uphold the rule of law by ensuring fairness and justice to all and at all times which is why they are demanding justice and equity.

N.O