The Senator representing Ondo North Senatorial District, Robert Boroffice, on Tuesday said that the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, did not impose on the party Senator Ahmad Lawan and House of Representatives member, Femi Gbajabiamila, as consensus candidates for the National Assembly leadership positions.
There had been an outcry among some federal lawmakers against Tinubu’s alleged role in the election of the leaders of the 8th National Assembly.
Some APC lawmakers who supported Senate President Bukola Saraki and the House speaker, Yakubu Dogara, had alleged that Lawan and Gbajabiamila were single-handedly picked by Tinubu to serve his personal interest.
But Boroffice, in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, said that Tinubu had preferred Senator George Akume and Gbajabiamila to be presented as the party’s choice for the post of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.
He said the argument of the former Lagos State governor had been that both Akume and Gbajabiamila, being minority leaders in the Seventh Senate and House of Representatives, should automatically assume the leadership of the respective chambers.
Boroffice said, “Asiwaju Tinubu had already made up his mind to, in line with the normal global parliamentary practice, support Akume and Gbajabiamila but the story changed along the line when there were indications that the party leadership was favourably disposed to Lawan.
“Tinubu had not before then had any close political interaction with Lawan. It was a Senator, who is very close to the Presidency that actually took Lawan to Asiwaju in Lagos, in company with another prominent party leader.
“Tinubu categorically told the two gentlemen in the presence of Lawan that his choice was Akume and pledged to consult with other party leaders before he would give his final answer to their request to support Lawan.
“I was in the know of all the processes that led to the emergence of Lawan and Gbajabiamila as consensus candidates. Tinubu played the role because of his loyalty to the party. I was among the four people that he sent to beg Akume since he had already promised to support him.
“The campaign of calumny against Asiwaju was a grand conspiracy to tarnish Tinubu’s image because some people were no longer comfortable with his ever-growing influence and goodwill within the party, which he earned over the years as a result of his generosity and selfless service.”
Boroffice said the initial campaign of the anti-Tinubu lawmakers within the APC was that Lawan’s emergence, being too independent-minded person, coupled with his alleged closeness to the former Senate President, David Mark, would be a thorn in the flesh of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
“It was when their wicked campaign against Lawan because of Asiwaju’s support for him failed that they connived with the Peoples Democratic Party to rebel against the party’s consensus candidates of Lawan and Gbajabiamila,” he said.
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