Igbo United Professionals on Tuesday congratulated Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, on his emergence as the President of the 10th National Assembly Senate Leadership.
In a statement signed by the President of the association, Emmanuel Ikechukwu-Jonathan, JP, Esq. and the Secretary, Engr. Cosmas Igata, in Enugu Nigeria, urged the newly elected President of the Senate not to take the block votes of South East Senators and their last minute support for granted.
The association further explained, “had it been that Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu and Sen. Osita Izunazo did not step down for Akpabio, Senator Abdulazeez Yari, would have won the seat of the President of the Senate with his 46 votes as the 63 votes garnered by Akpabio would have been shared by the three contenders from the Southern Nigeria and that would not have been healthy.
It is now clear that the northern agenda through Sen. Yari’s aspiration is to retain the Senate Presidency seat which is against the APC zoning formula but unfortunately the ethnic card they played failed them.
It will be recalled that Igbo United Professionals were one of the foremost groups from the South East Geopolitical zone that led the advocacy for support of Sen. Godswill Akpabio and the APC zoning formula as a bet for accommodation of South East Geopolitical Zone by the current Leadership at the centre.
The association emphasized that it will do the South East Geopolitical Zone more good than harm by aligning with the government at the centre for more effective inclusiveness.
Igbo United Professionals further maintained that it would not be healthy for South East to experience the kind of treatment the immediate past administration meted on the South East Geopolitical Zone adding that the only way to put to an end is to align with the APC leadership programmes.
The association appealed to Nigerians to be fair to the South East in the affairs of Nigeria considering the saying that “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
