APC senators in physical fight as peace meeting ends in deadlock

Firstclass newsline gathered that an argument between two All
Progressives Congress Senators, Kabiru Marafa and Tayo Alasoadura,
degenerated into a physical combat on Tuesday as a last minute attempt
by the party's caucus in the Senate to select the principal officers
ended in a stalemate.
The meeting of the caucus was convened in Abuja by the Senate
President, Bukola Saraki, to unite members of his group, the Like
Minds Senators and those loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, the Senate
Unity Forum.
The meeting was also aimed at arriving at a common position on the
selection of principal officers.
Trouble was said to have started immediately after Saraki had
delivered his speech and urged his colleagues to dissolve into zonal
caucuses to produce their representatives for the posts of Senate
Leader, the Deputy Senate Leader, the Chief Whip and the Deputy Whip.
It was at that stage that Senator Suleiman Hunkunyi, got angry on
hearing Saraki's call on members to dissolve into zonal caucuses.
Hunkunyi disagreed openly with Saraki on the issue and insisted that
the meeting should rather ratify the names already sent to his
(Saraki) office by the APC leadership on Tuesday.
According to him, the party had forwarded a letter which recommended
Senator Ahmad Lawan as Senate Leader; George Akume as deputy leader;
Olusola Adeyeye as Chief Whip; and Abu Ibrahim as deputy whip.
The action of the Kaduna State-born senator infuriated some of his
colleagues in the Saraki camp, who disagreed with the list allegedly
sent by the APC Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun. They maintained that the
Senate caucuses would determine their representatives.
During the commotion, Tayo Alasoadura, an APC senator faulted
the choice of Adeyeye and wondered why the party did not choose
Senator Ajayi Boroffice, who, according to him, is also qualified for
the position.
It was at that stage that Marafa, who felt that the Like Minds
senators were trying to scuttle the party's position , reacted
angrily to the opinion expressed by Alasoadura.
Marafa pushed Alasoadura.
It took the intervention of Senator Rafiu Ibrahim and others to
prevent Marafa and Alasoadura from further fighting each other.
Both Marafa and Alasoadura could not be reached for their comments but
Ibrahim who was one of the senators that settled the quarrel,
confirmed that the altercation was fallout of the disagreement during
the meeting.
He, however, said that the matter was being amicably resolved.
The meeting ended abruptly with the APC senators dissolving into their
various zonal caucuses to perfect the selection process. This also
ended in a stalemate as of the time of filing this report.
However, firstclass newsline learnt that the pro-Saraki senators had
produced a list containing the names of Senator Ali Ndume as Senate
Leader; Ahmed Sani – Yerima, as deputy leader; Olusola Adeyeye as
Chief Whip; and Francis Alimikhena, as deputy whip.
Speaking with journalists, Senator Abu Ibrahim said the aim of the
meeting was to reconcile the Unity Forum and the Like Minds groups
whose members had not met since the inauguration of the Eighth Senate.
He said, "One should expect this misunderstanding because the two
groups are meeting today(Tuesday). The meeting should have been
allowed to ratify the party's position and it is absolutely wrong for
some people to say we are responsible for that.
"The party has always been responsible for that since I have been
coming to the Senate; this is the first time, ..It is always the party
that gives the other positions.
"What some of us are saying is that we have no power to zone in that
meeting, it's the party that should take that responsibility. As far
as I am concerned, this was never done.
"I was a principal officer in the last Senate; the party gave our
names and that's how I became a principal officer.
"This issue will be sorted out in the next 24 hours. The party needs
to wield the big stick against anybody who has gone against its
directive.
Also, Hunkuyi, who allegedly caused the commotion maintained that the
leadership of the party should decide on who occupied the four
positions in the Senate.
He said, "An attempt here to do otherwise is the cause of this
rancour. We were just coming from the national headquarters of the
party and we were aware that the leadership of the APC is doing all it
can do to curb part of what should not have happened in this chamber
now.
"We were coming from the national headquarters of the party. They are
not aware. The meeting broke up without achieving its desired
objectives. There is no way it can achieve any result."
Senator Ibrahim Danbaba said he did not hear exactly what
Alasoadura said because "I just came around and met the rowdy
situation."
He said, "There were two groups before the election and we all agreed
that now there should be no faction within the APC. You know we had
the Like Minds and we had what you call the Unity Forum.
"Virtually most of us were around until around 11.30pm yesterday
(Monday) when the former leader of the Unity Forum, Senator Barnabas
Gemade came to say that there was need for the meeting to be postponed
till today(Tuesday) and that was the reason why that meeting was put
to 2pm today.
"On the floor of the Senate Chambers, the President of the Senate made
an announcement to say that all the APC senators were supposed to meet
at Room 301 by 2pm and in line with that arrangement that was made
yesterday, and what was reinforced today on the floor of the Senate by
the Senate President, we all assembled for the meeting.
"About 40 of us were around. Until towards the tail end of the
meeting, when the likes of Senator (Hunkuyi), who just finished making
statements came into the meeting."
" But the APC insisted on Lawan as the majority leader; George Akume
as his deputy and Adeyeye as chief whip.
It was learnt that the problem was compounded when the party dropped
Alimikhena for a senator from the North-West, Abu Ibrahim.
Investigations showed that the North-West caucus had rejected the post
of deputy chief whip and the choice of Ibrahim.
A senator, who spoke to one of our correspondents, said, "Saraki's
proposal almost sail through, except for Lawan's case.
"But the insistence of the party on having the principal officers from
the Lawan group compounded the problem. The North-West has rejected
chief whip.
"If Akume is picked as deputy senate leader, that means the senate
president and deputy senate leaders are from the North-Central. The
South-South has been dropped."
Firstclassnewsline.net