Senate Presidency: Ahmed Lawan’s anti-Akpabio plot will fail – Newsday publisher

Ofonime Honesty

Chief Edet Okon Isong, publisher of Newsday Newspaper, has chided Senate President Ahmed Lawan over what he said is an orchestrated plot to frustrate Senator Godswill Akpabio, Senator-elect for Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District from emerging as president of the 10th Senate.

In a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja, Isong, a former Chairman, Urueoffong Oruko Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State, said Lawan is witch-hunting Akpabio for being a frontline supporter of the President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Lawan is currently facing increasing difficulties in frustrating Chief Godswill Akpabio, who is clearly ahead as far as the 10th senate presidency is concerned. Deploying resources to fight a party man who committed no offence by stepping down for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the primaries, is a very wrong option,” Isong noted in his statement.

He alleged that Lawan has been stunned by the inroads made by Akpabio in recent weeks, and insisted that although the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State has refused to play dirty for the position, he remains favoured by zoning policy, the party, colleagues and the populace.

On the alleged plot, Chief Isong said Lawan has severally boasted that he will hand over to someone who was loyal to his aspiration for the presidency: “Lawan is from the North. A northerner succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari was not a good idea.

Read also: A’Ibom APC chief backs South-South for Senate presidency

“Apart from the northern hurdle, Akpabio went for competence and experience by endorsing Tinubu at the primaries. As a detribalized Nigerian, Akpabio does not hate Lawan and the north; he simply took a decision that bodes well for the country. Lawan’s aspiration didn’t favour national interest and federal character.”

He wondered how someone who couldn’t convince his northern allies to install him as presidential flagbearer of the APC would manage to stall Akpabio’s emergence.

Revealing that Lawan is failing in his quest to demarket Akpabio, Chief Isong advised him to sheathe the sword because “Chief Godswill Akpabio has no axe to grind with him.”

Advising the APC and senators across political lines to overwhelmingly choose Akpabio, he reasoned that his competence, experience, loyalty and contributions to the APC, Pan-Nigerian disposition and ability to harness and manage resources and people make him a perfect fit for the position.