Monday’s crucial meeting of the National Working Committee of All Progressives Congress was almost disrupted by pockets of protest by aggrieved members of the party.
The scores of demonstrators under the aegis of APC North-Central Stakeholders stormed the national secretariat of the party to register their displeasure over the alleged marginalisation of their region in the zoning of the Senate presidency.
This was even as they insisted that the North-Central would not accept anything less than Speaker of the House of Representatives as compensation for the sake of equity and federal character.
While the drama was playing out in front of the secretariat, the NWC members were holding a crucial meeting to determine which regions and consensus candidates should be given the positions of Senate presidency, Speaker and other principal offices ahead of the 10th Assembly inauguration.
The critical roundtable, which started at about 1.00pm, has the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu; National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore and the majority of the NWC members in attendance.
Multiple sources had earlier told our correspondent that the decision to ratify the positions was taken after the party leadership met with the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Friday.
Chanting solidarity songs and displaying several banners that read, “It’s time to reward North Central,” “North Central deserves Speakership position” and “We say NO to imposition of Speaker,” the protesters made spirited attempts to disrupt ongoing NWC meeting.
The effort was, however, rebuffed by stern-looking policemen who mounted guard at the entrance to the national headquarters of the APC.
Speaking with our correspondent, the spokesman for APC North Central Stakeholders, Salihu Ibrahim, disclosed that they find the alleged plan to scheme out North Central from the Senat3 sharing formula as outrageous.
Ibrahim also lamented that it would be unfair and selfish for the leadership of the party not to accord them the Speaker after all the efforts and votes they contributed to Tinubu’s victory.
He said, “Our purpose of storming the APC secretariat today is to see the APC national chairman. We want to ask him what is good for the North Central after much contribution to the growth, development and achievement of APC today. But to my greatest surprise, we learnt that North Central is not considered for the senate president and Deputy Senate president zoning. The party is not even seeking to compensate us with Speaker, which from every indication is going to be zoned to the North East. That is the height of marginalisation.
“It is disappointing to know that this is happening under the watch of the national chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who is also from the North Central. So we want to ask him, what is good for us in the North Central? What was the yardstick or parameter that APC is deploying for the sharing formula of principal offices?
“After all, it is on record that we contributed a lot tirelessly. We all have them on record. That was why we came out here to protest this marginalisation. We need to remind all of us who are members of APC and the people of Nigeria that the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, we are all celebrating today emerged as the flagbearer of APC based on the ideology of the party zoning the presidency to the South.
“It is outrageous to discover that we are not going to be given the chance for Senate president, Deputy Senate president and even the speaker. We cannot take this. That’s why we won’t leave here today until we hear from our father, the national chairman of the APC. We are therefore asking that the Speaker of the House be zoned to the North Central.”
Barely one hour after the protest, a second group of demonstrators from the same region drummed their way to the party secretariat screaming they want to see the party leadership address the unfair treatment meted to North Central.
The protesters, who identified themselves as North Central Democratic Coalition, also demanded the office of the Speaker or nothing.
Addressing journalists, the leader of the group, Ben Amodu said, “We have come here in our numbers to demand the zoning of the Speakership position in the North Central. A non-action implies that the region would be left out of the scheme of things because the vice president is from the North-East and the North-West is in strong contention for Senate leadership position.”
As of the time of filing this story, a third group of demonstrators under the umbrella of Coalition of APC Geo-Political Zones Support Group braved the heavy downpour to join other protesters to press own the same demand
