A ranking member of the Nigerian Senate has told The Nation that, the Peoples Democratic Party leaders are ‘excited’ by the joint ticket of Senators Ahmed Lawan and George Akume as proposed by the joint supporters of both senators.
The senator also claimed that the joint ticket has the support of 40 senators belonging to the APC, adding that proposed joint ticket which was announced this past weekend was supported by many senators-elect.
“The senators-elect, who have not made up their minds before now, said their support are aware “because of the ticket and issue-based campaign.”
The group under the name ‘Unity Forum’ of the Senate, led by Senator Barnabas Gamade, last weekend, announced the joint ticket. They likened the ticket to the presidential ticket of their party which won the presidential polls.
They added: “All senators-elect across the political divide in the yet to be inaugurated Senate are already identifying with team, especially those in APC.
“In terms of the experience, we have been telling our distinguished colleagues across party lines that the Lawan-Akume ticket will provide the nation with the much desired legislative know-how because Lawan is going to be the highest ranking APC senator in the Eighth Assembly. Senator Akume is a former governor and a legislator in the last eight years. He is the Minority Leader.”
On the issue of corruption, they said the ticket is sell-able: “because Lawan and Akume, from the available record of their service to the country in the public domain, have been on the same page with Nigerians on the menace.
“From the pronouncements of our party leaders and their body language, what is of utmost importance to them is for the National Assembly to start on a clean slate with principal officers who will be seen as not only transparent, but transparently honest and do not carry any baggage of past scandal, no matter how small,” they added.
The PDP leaders in the Senate also reaffirmed their readiness to vote for Lawan and Akume “with the collapse of the campaign structures of the two senators into one.”.
APC ranking senators-elect confirmed that, the PDP senators-elect supported, saying: “they told them that the ticket of the duo made things easy for them. Following the ongoing engagements between APC leaders and their PDP counterparts.”
Some PDP senators-elect reportedly promised not to betray the Lawan-Akume ticket when the eight session of the National Assembly will be inaugurated.
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