A Punch Metro report has shown that the senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege says President Muhammadu Buhari will be actively involved in the process of selecting the next leader of the Senate.
Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria in Warri, Omo-Agege said the President and the ruling All Progressives Congress would avoid the 2015 mistake that led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the President of the Senate.
‘‘Anybody who is going to be Senate President, in the 9th Senate, must be somebody who is loyal to Mr President, the party and the constitution.
‘‘The Senate President will be determined by Mr President. Mr President will indicate to us through the party who he wants to work with,’’ Omo-Agege said.
The ruling APC is set to produce the next Senate president after winning the majority seats at the upper legislative chamber in the February 23 election.
Asked if the APC has zoned the Senate presidency to any geopolitical zone, the lawmaker said ‘‘I do not know.’’
‘‘But what I can tell you is that we are going to have a Senate that will work with Mr President.
‘‘The era of allowing renegades who rode on the back of Mr President, who rode on the back of the party to go in there and trade the party’s mandate, I think that era is gone.
‘‘I am very hopeful that this time around, Mr President will step in and decide not only the zone that will produce the Senate president and the leadership but also who, it should be.
‘‘We don’t want to erect another opposition leader in the Senate, as we had in the 8th Assembly.
‘‘There are a lot of us in the Senate who are returning to the next senate who fits into that position. We are so many but any decision the President makes, we will all fall in line and abide,’’ he said.