A planned political solution aimed at resolving the logjam in the leadership of the Senate have run into a hitch, following refusal of the incumbent Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, to resign.    

The Punch newspaper says a meeting was held to solve the crisis between the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, Ndume and three other ranking senators, including Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East) and Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), on Monday night.

Osinbajo was said to have told the APC senators that the position of the Presidency remained that Saraki must toe the party’s line on the appointment of principal officers.

However Sen. Ndume reportedly told Osinbajo that the APC could not sanction him because he was a popular politician who had been winning elections in his area even when he was not in the party.

“With due respect, Mr. Vice-President, I cannot give you what I don’t have. It is the North-East caucus in the Senate that gave me their mandate; they are the only one that can withdraw it.

“Apart from this, asking me to relinquish my position will likely create enmity between Borno and Yobe states because the Borno South would see it as a case of deliberate persecution of their representative in the APC government,” the senator reportedly told Osinbajo.

Ndume was also said to have argued that his constituents would not take it lightly with him because they saw him as holding the position in trust for them. He said he had been been warned before attending the meeting against trading off his mandate.

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