APC Crisis: Shuaibu Dares Oshiomhole as Ndume Shakes Lawan on Senate Presidency
The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari’s party, appears to be taking a turn for the worse. The party’s Deputy National Chairman North, Senator Lawan Shuaibu, who is at dagger-drawn with his principal, Adams Oshiomhole, has said that the newly inaugurated five-man disciplinary committee by the Oshiomhole’s faction lacks the Constitutional power to probe him.
He brought this to the knowledge of the probe panel in a letter to the committee’s chairman, Otunba Niyi Adebayo.
The worsening crisis in the party is playing out as Senator Ali Ndume is busy unsettling the Senator Ahmad Lawan camp in the battle for the Presidency of the 9th Senate. Insiders say the Lawan camp is not comfortable with the late massive surge in support for Ndume.
Officialy, Lawan is the anointed one by the hierarchy of the APC for the top Senate office that automatically makes the occupant the number three citizen of Nigeria. But the defiant Ndume has been busy engaging senators-elect and leaders across the country to support him to wrestle Lawan to the ground.
It seems, the engagements have given his campaign a boost as many APC governors and senators-elect tend to see him as a better candidate for the job. They are of the view that Ndume will work for the interest of the whole country and not the interest of godfathers nor the tyranny of the APC.
Lawan’s choice is however, being dubbed as a stooge who will only promote selfish interests of certain cabals. Northern liberals believe Ndume can balance Buhari’s conservatism to calm nerves in the National Assembly and stablise the polity.
Lawan is also seen as being extremely conservative and considered a bigot even as the opposition fears APC despotism under a Buhari’s presidency and Lawan’s National Assembly leadership.
