By Ogochukwu Isioma
Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has warned his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), that it was unconstitutional to micro-zone the leadership positions of the National Assembly to individuals.
This was as the former Abia governor declared that the Senators-elect were going to challenge the decision of the ruling party to zone the leadership hierarchy of the impending 10th Assembly to individuals, insisting that it was ’undemocratic.’
While maintaining that all the 109 Senators-elect have what it takes to be Senate president, the APC Senator called on the leadership of his party to ”go back to the drawing board, and rezone, not by name, but by zones.”
Kalu said: “What you have done (zoning formula) does not look very nice. It is undemocratic; it is unconstitutional to put people’s names. We are going to challenge it.
“We are going to say no. I am a party man and we have never disobeyed this party, but this is the first time we are going to say no on the floor of the Senate. The party should go back to the drawing board and rezone, not by name, but by zones.
“It will not be right for our party, being a very big party, to be doing something that is unconstitutional. I believe all the 109 senators elected to have what it takes to be Senate president. There is nobody that has been elected that cannot be senate president.”
METROWATCHXTRA.COM reports that the APC National Working Committee (NWC), last week, micro-zoned Senate Presidency to Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), while announcing zoning arrangement for the leadership positions in the impending 10th National Assembly.
The party also micro-zoned Deputy Senate Presidency to Barau Jubrin (Kano); while for the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen (Kaduna) got Speaker, with Benjamin Kalu (Abia) taking the deputy slot.
