Ekweremadu: APC Leaders Move Against Igbos Emerging SGF
A report on Obindigbo.com suggests that President Muhammadu Buhari is under intense pressure from top chieftains of the All Progressives Congress not to consider an Igbo man for the post of secretary to the government of the federation because of the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Nigeria's deputy senate president.
Ekweremadu emerged as the deputy to newly sworn-in senate president, Bukola Saraki yesterday, but the election of the duo have created crisis in the ruling APC as Saraki was not the preferred candidate of the party.
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The party's spokesman, Lai Mohammed, this morning, described the election of the two senators as ‘tragic' saying some of their members in the senate who supported Saraki are like the ‘green snake under the green grass’.
Saraki, who banked on the Peoples Democratic Party senators' support to win the election had according to reports, given his blessings to Ekweremadu's emergence as a condition for the PDP's senators support.
A situation that has made the acclaimed leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu vow that he will not recognise Saraki as Nigeria's senate president.
READ ALSO: We Will Hold Bukola Saraki Accountable – BudgIT
APC sources hinted the website that some of the APC chieftains have already mapped out plans to put pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari not to appoint an Igbo man or woman as the SGF with arguments that Ekweremadu, an Igbo man, is now a senior ranking official in the government.
This move has reportedly made the South-South chieftains of the party move to occupy the position as no one from the region is in the top hierarchy of government.
For now, only the South-South is not represented in the top hierarchy of the Buhari government. President Buhari is from the North-west region, Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo is from the South-west, Saraki is from the North-central, Speaker Yakubu Dogara is from the North-east, while his deputy, Hon. Yusuf Lasun is from the South-west.
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The idea was reportedly mooted at the International Conference Centre, where APC chieftains and senators loyal to Lawan had gathered hoping for Buhari to address them. But while at the ICC, the news filtered that Saraki and Ekweremadu had emerged as presiding officers of the upper chamber.
Immediately after Ekweremadu's emergence, the party egg-heads reportedly started their political permutations which they agreed to use in advancing their position to the president.
The arrow head of the plot is the chairman of the party, chief John Odigie-Oyegun. If the plan goes through, it will signal the end of the ambition of top Igbo politicians like chief Ogbonnaya Onu and Senator Chris Ngige, who earlier reports suggests were front runners for the position.
READ ALSO: Ahmad Lawan-led Faction To Challenge Saraki’s Victory In Court
Meanwhile, the Lagos state chapter of the APC has called on the national leadership of the party to punish Saraki, and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
Source: Legit.ng
