Tinubu silent as APC bleeds internally, Adamu battles Akpabio, Abbas

President Bola Tinubu has remained silent as the All Progressives Congress (APC) is seemingly plunged into latent internal bleeding over the appointment of the Principal Officers of the 10th National Assembly. The President is yet to say a word as the leader of the ruling APC, while the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, battles the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, challenging their decisions on the appointment of principal officers of the two chambers of the federal legislature.

APC National Chairman, Adamu, in an interaction with APC Governors, protested that the party leaders and members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) did not make any contribution into the decision to appoint the principal officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The chairman complained that he read of the appointments of on online publications, saying that the APC National Working Committee (NWC) members were yet to give any such information or be communicated about the choice of officers. He warned that until they formally resolve and communicate with the National Assembly leadership in writing, whatever announcement made by the senate president and the speaker of the House is not from the APC Secretariat.
Adamu had declared: “And until we formally resolve and communicate with them in writing which is the norm and practice, it is not our intention to break away from traditions. So, whatever announcement is done by either the President of the Senate, Deputy Senate President, Speaker or Deputy Speaker, is not from this secretariat.”
He maintained: “The election of the principal officers of the Senate by the Senate President and Deputy Senate President. The election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives have been determined and announced and their responsibilities.
“The remaining offices will be determined by the two chambers is yet to be done. I had a courtesy call on Saturday from the President of the Senate and his Deputy. The following day which was Sunday, I received the visit by the Speaker and his Deputy Speaker coming to me for Sallah’s homage.
“But, I am just hearing as a rumour now from the online media that there have been some announcements in the Senate and House of Representatives.
“The national headquarters of the party of the NWC has not given any such information or communicated about the choice of offices.”
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, had announced Opeyemi Bamidele, Majority Leader; David Umahi, Deputy Majority Leader; Mohammed Ali Ndume, Senate Majority Whip; and Lola Ashiru, Deputy Majority Whip.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Abbas, had also announced Julius Ihonvbere, representing Owan east/Owan West Federal Constituency, Edo State, as Majority Leader; Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims, representing Ankpa/Omala/Olamaboro, Kogi State, Deputy Majority Leader; Bello Usman Kumo, representing Akko federal constituency, Gombe State, Chief Whip; and Adewunmi Oriyomi Onanuga, representing Ikenne/Sagamu/Remo north federal constituency, Ogun State, Deputy Chief Whip.
The appointments are being challenged by the APC national chairman.
Meanwhile, the silence of President Tinubu on the issue has begun to generate skepticism and mutual suspicion that the President may be supporting the presiding officers in the appointment of the principal officers in both chambers of the National Assembly.
Some APC stalwarts, speaking to National Daily on conditions of anonymity, expressed concerns that the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives may have made the decisions to promote the interest of the President, or position the President’s loyalists in the National Assembly. This, they said, may be the reason the President has been silent on the controversy.