Deadlock: APC chieftains row over who should be speaker

The meeting on Thursday by leaders of the APC to zone political offices ended in a deadlock as it failed to agree on which zone should produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The meeting which held at the Rivers State Governors’ Lodge at Asokoro, Abuja was however adjourned, for more consultations to be made before a final decision could be taken on position sharing.

The meeting came to a deadlock on account of the tussle between leaders of the North-East and South-West for the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The leaders at the meeting, nevertheless, agreed on the zoning of the office of Senate President to the North-Central and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, to the South-East.

It was gathered that the meeting reached a deadlock on the issue of the Speaker as both supporters of the zoning of the office to the North-East and the South-West maintained their grounds.

A source, who was in the meeting, said the meeting at one stage degenerated to a hot verbal exchange between the supporters of the two zones. The development, it was gathered, forced the meeting to mandate the president-elect and the vice-president-elect to resolve the issue on a later date.

A highly placed member of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the APC leadership was only being meticulous. “We have to be careful in dealing with such sensitive issues because we must carry everybody along to eliminate the possibility of having aggrieved members who could be used by our opponents.

Meanwhile, a member of National Executive Council of the APC said that the South-East would not produce any principal officers in the Buhari administration.

The NEC member said the inability of the region to produce a senator or a member of the House of Representatives in the April 11 elections shut out the zone from producing any principal officer.

The NEC member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the idea of picking a PDP senator-elect or House of Representatives-elect as a principal officer was impossible.

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