Senate President: Group congratulates Akpabio, says don't take Igbo support for granted

BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Igbo United Professionals on Tuesday congratulated Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, on his emergence as the President of the Senate.

In a statement signed by the President of the association, Emmanuel Ikechukwu-Jonathan and the Secretary, Cosmas Igata, in Enugu, urged the newly elected President of the Senate not to take the block votes of South East Senators and their last minute support for granted.

The association further explained, “had it been that Senators Orji Uzor Kalu and Osita Izunazo did not step down for Akpabio, Senator Abdulazeez Yari, would have won the seat of the President of the Senate with his 46 votes as the 63 votes garnered by Akpabio would have been shared by the three contenders from the Southern Nigeria and that would not have been healthy.

“It is now clear that the northern agenda through Senator Yari’s aspiration is to retain the Senate Presidency seat which is against the APC zoning formula but unfortunately the ethnic card they played failed them”, the group noted.

It would be recalled that Igbo United Professionals were one of the foremost groups from the Southeast geopolitical zone that led the advocacy supporting Senator Akpabio and the APC zoning formula as a bet for accommodation of Southeast geopolitical zone by the current leadership at the Centre.

The association emphasized that it would do the Southeast zone more good than harm by aligning with the government at the Centre for more effective inclusiveness.

Igbo United Professionals further maintained that it would not be healthy for Southeast to experience the kind of treatment the immediate past administration meted on the region, adding that the only way to put to an end is to align with the APC leadership programmes.

The association appealed to Nigerians to be fair to the Southeast in the affairs of Nigeria considering the saying that “an injury to one is an injury to all.”

Editor

Jude Ossai (JP) a veteran journalist is a National Diploma holder in Mass Communication from Ogwashi-Uku Polytechnic Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State. He also studied at Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu and Imo State University, Owerri for his first and second degrees in Mass Communication, respectively. He writes extensively on politics, crime, corruption, climate change, healthcare, human rights, social justice, among others.