Flanked by Senators and Senators-elect, Gemade said: “Kindly take this to be our collective decision in the best interest of our party, APC and our dear nation.”

According to reports, Senator George Akume, and the National leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who is notoriously famous for imposing candidate on the party, last month met with Akume.

Tinubu had in the meeting told Akume to shelve his ambition and support Senator Ahmed Lawan, who represents Yobe-North senatorial district in the 8th Senate.

The battle for the Senate Presidency was between the North-east and the North-central and Akume, who is currently the Senate Minority Leader, represents the Benue-North senatorial district in the Senate.

Senator Bukola Saraki, who represents Kwara-Central senatorial district in the North-central geopolitical zone, had also openly expressed his intention to contest for the number three seat in the country.

Tinubu had explained to Akume that Lawan and Senator Mark are very close and already, some members of the PDP support him.

“Lawan has a good track record in the Senate and has been backed by almost all the Senators in the North-east who feel the zone has been seriously marginalized.

“The catch there is that if the APC members in the Senate do not support Lawan and he wins the Senate Presidency with bloc votes from the PDP and his friends in the North-east, he will be loyal to the PDP and may sideline us just as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, attributed his victory to the APC back in 2011 even though he was a member of the PDP,’’ an APC Senator who quoted Tinubu said.

“Akume was also asked to step down by Tinubu because the North-central, where he hails from, had been holding the Senate Presidency since 2007 while the North-east had never presided over the upper chamber of the National Assembly since independence.”

He added that giving the North-east the seat would also be a way of rewarding them for giving the APC the second highest number of votes during the presidential election. “The current Senate President is from Benue State and has been in charge for eight years.

“Would it be fair to also hand over the Senate Presidency to another person from Benue?”

Reports have emerged that some influential backers behind Akume led by Tinubu have withdrawn their support mainly because they see he is not their choice as Senate President, and any attempt to railroad him will be rejected.

Apart from that, Akume decided to step down for Lawan because of the intimidating qualities the latter has and he cannot contend with.

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