APC Meeting Ends In Logjam As Leaders Fail To Agree On Zoning

A meeting of leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday failed to come to a conclusion on the zoning of political offices in the National Assembly.
The meeting which was held at the Rivers State Governors’ Lodge at Asokoro, Abuja all through Wednesday night and the early hours of Thursday, came to a deadlock on account of the tussle between leaders of the North-East and South-West for the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The leaders at the meeting, nevertheless, agreed on the zoning of the office of Senate President to the North-Central and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, to the South-East.
Meanwhile, returning members of the House of Representatives were, yesterday, understood to have forged a consensus on breaking the deadlock by throwing up two of the returning members as their choice for speaker and deputy speaker.

It was learnt that the returning members have thrown up outgoing minority leader, Femi Gbajabiamila and Yakubu Dogara for either speaker or deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.
Among those that attended the meeting on Wednesday night at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge on Hassan Usman Katsina Street, Asokoro, Abuja were President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd); Vice-President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; party leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; governors-elect, senators-elect as well as some executive officers of the party.
Vanguard gathered that besides reaching a consensus on the Senate Presidency which it zoned to North-Central, the meeting reached a deadlock on the issue of the Speaker as both supporters of the zoning of the office to the North-East and the South-West maintained their grounds.