Protest vote rumour worries Lawan’s camp

• Opponent’s Spies Reportedly Attend Lawan’s Dinner Meeting
• Everyone is Committed— Lawan
The All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus in the Senate has continued to witness increased uncertainty and discomfort, as news spread that some of its members may jump camp and abandon the party’s decision to elect Senate Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan as Senate President next month.

Lawan, however, ruled out such fears, declaring, “Everyone is committed to the cause.”To dismiss the rumour, which gained ground around the National Assembly last week, Lawan’s campaign team swiftly organised a dinner meeting towards the weekend, attended by about 30 Senators-elect.But another worrisome report emanating from the dinner had it that some of the Senators-elect at the dinner were there to spy for Lawan’s opponent.

At the dinner, Lawan said: “Our colleagues here and everybody have shown commitment. We are seeking God’s face, His blessings and mercies in this enterprise once again. As human beings, we can only see the physical. And from the physical, we can see there is a lot of success in what we are doing. The other thing we don’t know is what God has kept to Himself. So, we will continue to pray for God’s intervention in this matter.”

However, a very strong Anti-Lawan campaigner, currently working for the emergence of someone else as Senate President next month, boasted yesterday that some of the Senators and Senators-elect at that meeting went there to work for the opposition.“I can confidently say the number of Senators and Senators-elect they think they had at that dinner is fake. We have quite a number of our supporters at that meeting who simply went there to work for us,” he said.

The reported protest vote plan originated from earlier reservations and concerns expressed by many stakeholders in the ruling party, who faulted the manner in which Lawan was announced as APC Senate President candidate.It was learnt that on the day of election of Senate President, a sizeable number of APC Senators, mostly from the Northern part, would vote for a different candidate other than the one APC leaders endorsed.