The Senate on Tuesday, June 13 elected Senator Godswill Akpabio as its President, in an election held at the National Assembly Complex following the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly.
He defeated Abdulaziz Yari, a former Zamfara governor and his only rival in the contest, with 13 votes margin. Both contestants are members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Akpabio, a former Akwa-Ibom governor and ex-Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, polled 63 votes, the highest votes cast to emerge the nation’s number three man. Yari got 46.
Earlier, Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) nominated Akpabio for the position, while Senator Elisha Abbo (APC, Adamawa North) nominated Yari.
Unlike the House of Representatives whose members openly voted their preferred aspirants, the Senate adopted the open-secret voting system, for their principal officers’ election.
However, METROWATCHXTRA.COM has now obtained a purported list showing how the 109 Senators representing the country’s 36 states’ senatorial districts, voted for either Akpabio or Yari on June 13.
The list published by a member of the APC, @DeeOneAyekooto, on Twitter, showed that Akpabio cleared Akwa-Ibom, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Rivers, Yobe and FCT.
Yari, on the other hand, cleared Adamawa, Bauchi, Delta, Gombe, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto and Taraba States.
The Senators split the votes of Senators from Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Plateau and Zamfara States.
