TheCable

The Leadership Council of the Initiatives, a group of former and serving members of the national members, has asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) to nominate Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom, as the senate president.

The bipartisan group said the office of the number three citizen should not be zoned to the south-east because the region has produced most of the senate presidents since 1999.

Akpabio has not yet declared his intention to run for the position.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Eseme Eyiboh, a former spokesperson of the house of representatives, said the office of the senate president requires the capacity that Akpabio possesses.

“The presidency of the senate, in a time like this, requires someone who has capacity. The gentleman has capacity. It requires somebody with the pedigree of working with the people and getting results, he has it,” Eyiboh said.

“It requires somebody who does not suffer the integrity deficit. He doesn’t suffer from that. We need somebody who will galvanize the judiciary and the executive so that the people will rejoice.

“I want to be admitted as a messenger of truth that the best we would ever have is no other than his excellency, senator Godswill Akpabio.

“The Akwa Ibom people are not going to vote for him but the senators, senators-elect, who will later become senators that will vote for him.

“I appeal to the leadership of the APC, that this is what is required as a nation now.

“The south-east, since 1999 till date, we have given the senate presidency to the south-east. In the spirit of brotherhood, it cannot go to the south-west because the presidency is already domiciled there. They should do the needful by zoning the senate presidency to the south-south.”