S’East APC sets up committee to lobby for NASS leadership positions

Moses Oyediran, Enugu

The South East stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have set up committee to lobby for National Assembly leadership positions ahead of the 9th inauguration.

This is as it also demanded for a review of the zoning arrangement.

The stakeholders meeting which took place at the weekend the in Enugu was presided over by the National Vice Chairman of the party, South East, Chief Emma Eneukwu, had in attendance Minister of Science and Technology, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu;

his Labour counterpart, Dr. Chris Ngige; former Governor and senator-elect, Dr. Orji-Uzo Kalu; former Minister, Chief Emeka Worgu, serving and incoming members of the National Assembly among others.

In a 7-point communiqué issued after the meeting, they called on the national leadership of the party “to revisit the subsisting zoning of principal offices in the 9th National Assembly in a more equitable manner that will accord more deserving positions to the South East zone considering that the Federation of Nigeria rests on the six geopolitical zones of South East, South South, South West, North Central, North East and North West.”

The APC NWC had earlier zoned the speakership of the House of Representatives to the South West and the Senate President to the North East, while Deputy Senate President goes to the South South, leaving out the South East.

But the zone has now kicked against the decision, calling for a review.

It urged the NWC “to draw strength from the need to utilise the zoning of principal offices in the 9th National Assembly to further deepen and strengthen the electoral appeal of the party, especially in parts of the country where it may be considered as weak.”

The South East APC said in the communiqué that it had taken particular interest in the legitimate pursuit of National Assembly leadership offices by interested leaders from the zone, adding that “it has endorsed their respective aspirations.”

They exhorted professionals and leaders of thought of Igbo extraction “to take active interest in the aspirations of Igbo leaders and members of our great party from the zone.”

Consequently, a committee, chaired by the Minister of Science and Technology, Chief Ogonnaya Onu, who is the leader of the party in the zone, has been saddled with the responsibility of interfacing with the party hierarchy and party leaders in the other zones with a view to giving the South East a fair position in the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, the meeting also congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari on his electoral victory, resolving that a letter of congratulations be forwarded to him to express the support of the South East APC.

While commending the electorate in the South East for voting for the party, they expressed confidence that elected representatives “of our people on the platform of our great party would redouble their efforts to ensure that they meet the legitimate expectations of both their respective constituents in particular and the electorate in the zone in general.”

They deplored what they called “the undue interference and unwholesome meddlesomeness by forces from outside the zone in the affairs of the South East zone of our great party, aimed at factionalising and destabilising the party in the zone.”

A committee chaired by former minister, Barr. Emeka Worgu was also inaugurated to probe reported anti-party activities of some leaders of the party during the 2019 general election.