The recent report that outgoing Governor Shettima of Borno State has helped his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to sway Senator Ali Ndume to back down from his plan to contest the Senate presidency and tow the party line and choice of Senator Ahmed Lawan has been shredded by a Borno state based group canvassing support for Ndume and Danjuma Goje for the number three position in the country.
The group, the Concerned Borno Stakeholders, at the weekend insisted that Ndume and Goje were still in the race for the Senate presidency.
All three Senator hail from the North-east to which the party has zoned the Senate Presidency but the choice of Lawan by the party has ruffled feathers of Ndume and Goje and their supporters who prefer an open, democratic contest for all of them.
Led by a top civil servant and prominent indigene of the state, Samaila Ville, the group addressed journalists in Maiduguri that the news making the rounds in both print and electronic media that Ndume has withdrawn from the race was fake and untrue.
According to him, we “surprised to see the post on social media that our son, Senator Ndume had withdrawn from the senate race after himself and the former governor of Gombe state, Danjuma Goje, had met with the president.
“Though we did not believe the news, but we still had to check with Senator Ndume who had just left for Abuja to ascertain the veracity of such wicked rumor. And his respond was in the negative that he had never, not even for once, contemplated backing out of the senate race.
“We know that the rumour was fake; and we want to categorically tell it to the world, that the race for the presidency of the 9th senate is not all about Senator Ndume; but a collective decision. It all started locally from here; we are the ones that asked him to run after we had massively voted for him for the third time as senator representing Borno South.
“Even if he is to withdraw, which is not likely, it has to be with the full consent of the stakeholders in Borno state first. And as at the last time we met with Senator Ndume, which was some hours ago, the issue of backing out was never discussed. Besides how can a man that just left Maiduguri late Friday afternoon be said to have met with the President on the same day.”
“We are also happy to hear the APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomole, saying on Channels TV Hard Copy program that he cannot appoint or impose anyone on the Senate. Let him stick to that and allow democracy to prevail in the election of who becomes the next Senate President”, the group insisted.
