SAN FRANCISCO, June 09, (THEWILL) – Senator Bukola Saraki of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been elected President of the 8th Senate.
He was nominated and elected unopposed by senators present at Tuesday’s inaugural session.
Saraki was elected by 57 senators out of the 109-member Senate. 51 senators did not attend the session.
The new Senate President was elected with the support of the 49 senators elected on the platform of the PDP, which had earlier adopted him for the position against his party’s consensus choice, Senator Ahmed Lawan, which caused friction amongst APC senators.
President Muhammadu Buhari had called a meeting of all members-elect of the National Assembly elected on the platform of the APC to resolve the disagreement. The meeting was ongoing with 51 senators in attendance when Saraki was elected.
Buhari who returned from the G7 meeting in Germany Tuesday morning called the meeting following feelers that Saraki had sealed a deal with the minority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the senate to have Senator Ike Ekweremadu become his deputy.
Bukola had a marathon late night meeting, which ended a few hours ago, with the members of the PDP National Working Committee and senators-elect of the party where the deal was sealed.
As at the time of this report, voting to elect Senator Ekweremadu, the past Deputy Senate President or Senator Ali Ndume of the APC as Deputy Senate President was ongoing.
