No decision on zoning of NASS leadership yet – APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) declared on Monday that no decision has been taken on the zoning of leadership for the 10th National Assembly.

There were insinuations in the media that the ruling party has opted to zone the position of Senate President to the South-East and that of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North-West in the next dispensation.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila disclosed this to State House correspondents after the meeting between the APC leadership and the newly elected lawmakers in Abuja.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume, was also at the briefing.

He said the party’s leadership urged the new lawmakers to focus on this weekend’s governorship election.

The meeting, according to Gbajabiamila, was to bring the National Assembly members-elect together to celebrate the party’s victory in the February 25 election.

He said: “On the issue of zoning, yes, we did talk about it; it is neither here nor there yet; we have another election coming up this weekend and we want to make sure that everybody goes back home, roll up your sleeves.

“It is not yet hurray, we are not there yet; we need to complete the victory and our joy before we talk about the National Assembly; and that’s basically what it was about.”

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He argued that the absence of the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at the meeting did not affect the outcome.

The speaker stressed that the question of the zoning of leadership positions in the National Assembly would be put on hold till after the election.

On his part, Ndume said the meeting was to evaluate the party’s performance in the last elections.

“And the party, as expected also, appealed to the members of the National Assembly-elect to play down on the leadership issues and concentrate so that we take the election battle to the end, and that is to ensure that we win our states, and that is exactly what we are doing.

“The issue of zoning did not come up; the president-elect is a parliamentarian; he has more experience than most of us and coincidentally, the Nigerian government is going to be a National Assembly government.

“The president-elect was a senator; the vice president-elect was a senator; the party chairman was a senator; the secretary of the party was a senator; I believe that this time around we are going to have a rancour-free relationship,’’ he concluded.

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