The All Progressives Congress has removed Senator Ali Ndume as Senator majority leader, replacing him with Ahmed Lawan.
He replaces Senator Ali Ndume from Borno State who had occupied the position since June 2015, when the upper chamber began the eight session on a fractious note.
Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki read a letter from APC caucus on the change in the Senate leadership.
But Ndume was quoted to have said that he remains the senate leader.
“I still remain Senate Leader,” he said at a press briefing. He said he was unaware of his removal by the APC Senate Caucus.
The new post must be a pleasant birthday present to the Yobe state politician, who has been in the National Assembly since 1999, first as a member of the House of Representatives. He was first elected senator in 2007.
Lawan was the choice of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu group for the Senate presidency in 2015. But on the day the Senate convened for its first plenary, Saraki, with the support of the minority PDP caucus seized control and took over the leadership.
Lawan was not even around to contest the seat, as he was held up at the International Conference Centre for a meeting, that never held, with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Saraki’s emergence created divisions in the APC. The crisis was accentuated when he refused to adopt Lawan and some other nominees of the party sent by the party leadership for various positions.
In the blowout, Saraki himself was almost consumed as he and his deputy faced a charge of forging the senate rules. He also faced a charge at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Lawan represents Yobe north in the Senate. He will be 58 years old on Thursday.
He was educated at Sabon Gari Primary School in Gashua and also Gashua Government Secondary School, where he graduated in 1979.
He then went to University of Maiduguri and Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria. And later Cranfield University in the United Kingdom.
