With 48 hours to the election of principal officers for the 10th Assembly, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, Asuquo Ekpenyong, has tipped the immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to emerge as new Senate President.
Ekpenyong, who is the senator-elect for Cross River South, expressed this view when he featured on Arise TV programme ‘Prime Time’.
According to him, 75 senators-elect, including those in the opposition political parties, are backing Akpabio.
Ekpenyong said, “For the sake of unity of this country and the sense of belonging required, it is important that religion plays a role. But that is not all of it. So, the Senate President must be a Christian for a modicum of balancing. We have the numbers and we are reaching out to the opposition senators-elect. What I find is a lot of propaganda online and sponsored media articles. But Akpabio will emerge on Tuesday.
“The word stability comes to mind when you vote for Akpabio. In the Senate, there is equality. There are three senators per state. It is important to balance this country because the framers of our constitution looked at Nigeria as an amalgamation of different tribes and different ethnic groups and it is important for each state to have a sense of belonging.”
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