APC National Chair Debunks Reports on Zoning of N’Assembly Positions

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has described as fake the widely reported news that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had zoned the various leadership positions in the National Assembly.

Adamu made the clarification while addressing  journalists after he cast his vote at his Keffi, Nasarawa State country home on Saturday.

He was reacting to a news report that Senator Barau Jibrin was being favoured to emerge as the Senate President because the NWC of the APC had allegedly zoned the Senate Presidency to the North-west.

But Adamu wondered why politicians would be engaging in wishful thinking instead of awaiting the official pronouncement from the party. 

He said: “The report about the zoning arrangements for the 10th National Assembly is fake news.  We have not done any zoning. 

“I have said it times without number since Monday. I am still saying the same thing. No zoning has been established yet and agreed to.

“No zoning has been made public. Anybody who is saying anything is a rumour. It’s a wishful rumour.”

Also in a statement titled ‘APC Yet To Zone Key 10th National Assembly Positions’, signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, on Saturday, the party described stories of the zoning of leadership positions as false and misleading.

Morka said: “The attention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been drawn to a report circulating on social media on purported zoning of key positions of the incoming 10th National Assembly. The report is false and misleading and should be disregarded in its entirety. 

“The party has not made any decision on zoning of positions or offices of the 10th Assembly. 

“As soon as a decision is made on zoning, it will be made public through the party’s official communications channel.” 

The misleading reports, which was published by major newspapers on Saturday, had claimed that the NWC of the APC had finally opted to zone the Senate Presidency position to the North-west geopolitical zone, making the “odds to clearly favour Senator Barau Jibrin”.

The false report claimed that the decision on zoning was reached on Friday night by the leadership of the APC after consulting with the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

“The decision takes pre-eminence over earlier suggestions in some quarters to zone the position to the South,” the debunked story further claimed.