Mark, ACN fight over Senate Minority Leader

[MrVan]

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA—SENATE President, Senator David Mark, yesterday, urged Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to put its house in order and restrain itself from what he termed name-calling.

Mark distanced himself from alleged plot to remove the Senate Minority Leader, Senate George Akume from office and warned ACN not to create disaffection in the "one united Senate family of very committed statesmen and women with its parochial and narrow-minded views."

Meanwhile, ACN has passed a vote of confidence on Senator Akume, describing the phantom plot to replace him as Minority Leader as the handiwork of some reactionary and anti-democratic forces in the Senate."

ACN, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, expressed satisfaction with the manner Senator Akume has so far discharged his responsibility as the Senate Minority Leader.

He said the choice of the Minority Senate Leader was the sole and exclusive preserve of the leadership of ACN, as no amount of horse-trading, intrigue or blackmail can change that.

The party absolved its member in the Senate of involvement in the plot to remove him and bla-med the leadership of the Senate, which it said would rather prefer a more pliable and easily compromised Minority Leader to Akume.

However, Mark in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, described the allegation as crude and shocking. He said as a Senator elected on the platform Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, he does not attend the meetings of minority parties.

He said: "I am not a member of the minority parties. I do not attend the meetings of the minority parties. How then do I get involved in the plot to remove the minority leader

"Election or nomination of officers of the party in the National Assembly is the exclusive preserve of the political parties. How then would a non-party member get involved?

"ACN or its megaphone, Lai Mohammed, should do something more positive and progressive rather than the consistent mudslinging and lies to mislead Nigerians."

Vanguard Nigeria