Last-minute attempts by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and other party leaders to pacify Senator Ali Ndume to drop his bid for the Senate presidency may have flopped.
Investigations revealed that the leadership of the party and some influential senators met last week and decided to reach out to Ndume, who is contesting the position against Senator Ahmad Lawan.
It was learnt that Ndume rejected moves by Tinubu to make him drop his ambition, early last week.
Details of how it happened were still sketchy as of Saturday while Ndume who could confirm or deny the development, did not answer calls put across to him.
However, a senator said on Saturday that a group of Pro-Lawan senators-elect who travelled to Maiduguri on Friday returned to Abuja on Saturday evening without achieving their mission.
He said the group of senators had planned to meet Governor Kashim Shettima, also a senator-elect, but were disappointed when they could not meet with him.
The senator said, “The governor, who was probably aware of the Pro-Lawan senators’ visit, travelled out of the country before their arrival.
“The lawmakers decided to meet the deputy governor, who is not a stakeholder in the project.
During the brief session, the deputy governor told the lawmakers that Shettima had travelled to Saudi Arabia.”
Further findings revealed that the pro-Lawan senators returned to Abuja on Saturday evening.
Shettima, who is from the same state with Ndume, is believed to be one of the major backers of the former Senate leader for the position.
The pro-Lawan senators-elect would have used the opportunity of their visit to convince Shettima on the need to respect the choice of the party by supporting Lawan.
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