A group of All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders from the North Central geo-political, has tasked the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to ensure there equity and fairness in the distribution of presiding officer positions of the National Assembly, for the 10th assembly, among the various geo-political zones.

The APC stakeholders, who spoke at a press briefing, on Sunday, in Abuja, said alleged moves to cede both the positions of Deputy President of the Senate and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North West was unacceptable to the North Central.

There media reports last week that APC leaders, at a meeting in Abuja, agreed to cede the positions of Deputy President of the Senate and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives to the North West.

APC, the leader of North Central APC stakeholders, Rev. Dominic Alancha, who spoke on behalf of the group, argued that since the North West has been penciled for the position of the Deputy President of the Senate by the APC, the position of speaker should automatically go to the North Central in the interest of fairness.

Alancha noted that “we had expected the Leadership of APC to be guided by the principle of justice and fairness in zoning leadership positions in the parliament and had thought that factors like commitment to the success of the party, level of contributions and the need for fairness, Equity and justice to all would guide the decision.

“What we have seen emerging from the decision of the APC however, is a situation of total disregard to Justice Equity and fairness where personal interests has been put forward thereby bringing chaos and conflict in a situation that would have otherwise gone smoothly if national interest has been the guiding principle.”

He added that compared to other zones, the North Central gave massive support to the APC in the last general elections, especially in the number of seats of parliamentary seats the zone delivered to the ruling party.

According to him, “In the last elections, the North Central apart from giving the APC presidential ticket an overwhelming number of votes, gave a greater number of parliamentary and governorship seats to the APC.

“The APC won in Kwara, Niger, Benue and Kogi in the presidential elections and in the governorship elections, the North-central with six states gave the APC the four states of Benue, Niger, Nasarawa and Kwara, while that of Kogi which is still in the hands of the APC is pending meaning it lost only one state to the opposition parties.

“In the parliamentary elections the APC clinched majority seats in Kwara, Kogi, Niger and Nasarawa states and Benue where it won two out of the three senatorial seats and 10 of
the 11 House of Representatives seats leaving the PDP with only one seat each in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

“Compare this with the North West where the APC failed to secure the key states in the Northwest like Kaduna, Kano and Katsina, Kebbi and Sokoto in the presidential elections which usually bring the deciding votes winning only Zamfara and Jigawa of the seven states in the zone.

“The picture is even worse with the parliamentary elections where the APC lost majority seats in Kano with the NNPP clearing 18 out of the 24 House of Representatives seats in the state while in Kaduna, the APC lost all the three senatorial and 11 seats out of the 16 seats for House of Representatives to the PDP.”