Senate leadership: Northern senators intensify protests,tackle Akpabio over appointment of aides…

Few days to the resumption of the 10th Senate, northern senators elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have intensified protests and lobbying for the position of majority leader.

Some senators who spoke to newsmen in confidence, said the push by some South West lawmakers to fill the position would cause further disaffection in the already polarised Red Chamber.

One of the lawmakers said a precedent had also been set where the campaign coordinator of the Senate president is often named as majority leader. He wondered why the dynamics should be changed and a senator with lesser cognitive experience picked.

He called on the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC to address the imbalance in the Senate, where members from the North were already feeling marginalised.

Meanwhile, Akpabio has come under fire following Monday’s appointment of chief of staff and his deputy to the Senate president, who are both from the South and are Christians.

Senators, who are angry over the move, said Akpabio, barely a few days after his emergence, has become inaccessible to his colleagues.

A lawmaker said despite the existing practice where the chief of staff to the Senate president and the deputy are chosen from the North and South and also reflect the two faiths – Christianity and Islam, Akpabio decided to snub the North.

“That is why he doesn’t seek advice. How can he appoint chief of staff and deputy all from the South? The deputy should be from the North. He is creating problems for himself. If he had sought my advice, he would have taken his chief of staff from the South and deputy from the North. It is wrong,” an aggrieved northern senator noted.