By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North
Two former governors of the Peoples Democratic Party have been fingered as the arrow head of the revolt against President Muhammadu Buhari and his party in the choice of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The two politicians who are former governors of a South-South and South-East states, are said to be the main financiers of the revolt against the president and his party, the APC.

The governors are said to have mobilised a huge war chest for bankrolling the political revolt against the candidates endorsed by the president and his party for the post of Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The former governors are reported to have hatched the plot in a desperate bid to ensure that the APC , which controls the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, does not produce the two key principal officers in the 8th National Assembly.

They are said to have mobilised their members in the two chambers of the NASS and directed them not to work with the two men endorsed by the APC but to work with those who have defied the leadership of the APC and Buhari in the choice of the two principal officers.

The attention of the President is said to have been drawn to the activity of the two former governors before he departed Nigeria for the G7 meeting in Germany.
Apparently not being able to proffer a response to the development, the President is said to have referred the matter to the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, and asked him to take steps to douse the tension being generated over the election of the two principal officers.

However, while Tinubu has waded into the matter with a view to ensuring that the APC produces the two leaders in the NASS, key loyalists of the president are said to be peeved that many senators and House of Representatives members on the platform of the party had openly revolted against the party.

A top source told Vanguard last night that the affected men would be made to face some disciplinary actions to be decided at the highest level of the party.

“We are sure that some of them would be made to sight their report cards with the new EFCC to be put in place by the president, which will not tolerate graft in any form. The feeling seems to be that the name of a former military officer being suggested as the chairman of the anti-corruption agency is already sending shock waves to some of the political actors in the country and they may not like to be caught on the wrong side of history,” the source explained.

On the other hand, the two former governors, who are now Senators on the platform of the PDP, are said to have argued that they needed to work out alliance with the APC members to take over the National Assembly so as to cover their tracks in the states they recently left behind.

A lawmaker close to Senator Saraki and Representatives Dogara vowed last night that they were going ahead to contest the election despite threats from the APC leadership.


Source: Vanguard