Updated: Senate principal officers emerge as Lawan names caucus leaders

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

Senate principal officers emerged on Tuesday at the resumption of plenary with a slight adjustment to an already agreed allocation of positions in the majority All Progressives Congress (APC).

A dark horse, Senator Abdullahi Yahaya (Kebbi North) was named the Senate leader while Senator Ajayi Boroffice (Ondo North) emerged as deputy leader.

The APC also settled for the former Abia state Governor, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia North) as whip and Senator Sabi Yahaya Abdullahi (Niger North) as deputy whip.

Also, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) named Senators Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South), Emmanuel Bwacha (Taraba North) and Philip Aduda (FCT) as minority leader, deputy minority leader and minority whip respectively, while against expectations, Senator Sabi Yau (Zamfara North) was named deputy minority whip

Both the majority and minority leaders promised a bi-partisan atmosphere in the Senate to achieve the onerous task of giving legislative backing to policies of the government aimed at solving numerous challenged facing the country.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan in a short address said he is ready to lead a Senate that will not be acrimonious to the executive arm of government, but to hold the government accountable on all its programmes and policies, including the scrutiny of projects from conception stage to delivery stage.