Saraki replies APC over Choice of Senate’s Principal Officers says his hands are tied
The National Chairman of APC, John Oyegun, had on Tuesday, written a letter to Saraki to inform him of the party’s choice of principal officers of the senate, who were Ahmad Lawan as senate majority leader, George Akume as deputy majority leader, Olusola Adeyeye as chief whip, and Abu Ibrahim deputy chief whip.
On Thursday, however, Saraki named Ali Ndume as majority leader, Bala Na’Allah as deputy majority leader and Francis Alimikhena as deputy chief whip.
In his reply on Friday, Saraki said: “The said letter (Oyegun’s letter) was received after various APC zonal caucuses had taken their decisions to candidates as principal officers of the senate in line with parliamentary convention and the extant provisions of the senate standing orders 2015 as amended.
“Furthermore whilst one is strongly persuaded to toe party line and act in accordance with the suggested party position, regrettably clear provisions of our extant rules and standard parliamentary convention have not given me that leeway to act otherwise.
“Therefore, my hands are tied in the circumstances and I seek your understanding in this regard.
“However, I wish to state with equivocation that I remain loyal to our great party and its leadership and also fully committed to the change agenda of the Mr President of the federal republic of Nigeria”.
