Senate presidency: Yari rejects consensus candidate

Former Governor of Zamfara, Abdulaziz Yari, has said he will not step down for anyone in the race for the presidency of the 10th senate.

There are reports that Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs, is being considered as the consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the position.

Governor of Ebonyi, David Umahi, had earlier stepped down for Akpabio after meeting with the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, also claimed Akpabio would be the next senate president.

But speaking on Saturday with executives of Tinubu Shettima Network, led by Kailani Muhammad, the national chairman, in Abuja, Yari insisted on due process.

He said, “The senate presidency is senators’ business and on the D- day’ when we are going to elect our president, we will do the needful,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted him as saying.

“When we do that, we are not for anybody. We are doing what the constitution says that we should take our leader within ourselves.

“That is what the sections of the constitution stated very clearly. What is going to happen that day, it is going to happen based on the instructions of the constitution and not for anyone. So, we are going to exercise our constitutional rights there.”