I won’t step down, Ndume vows after meeting Osinbajo

Ali Ndume, former senate leader and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says he is still eyeing the number one position in the senate.

Ndume, who represents Borno south senatorial district, made this known after meeting with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa in Abuja on Monday.

He arrived at Aso Rock around 3pm before proceeding to Osinbajo’s office for the meeting.

The APC is expected to produce the next crop of national assembly leaders after emerging with the majority lawmakers in the two chambers.

A source had revealed that the party leadership as well as President Muhammadu Buhari have endorsed Ahmad Lawan as senate president.

But Ndume is still determined to run against Lawan who took over his position as senate leader after the Borno lawmaker fell out with Senate President Bukola Saraki.

At the end of the one-hour meeting with Osinbajo, state house correspondents asked Ndume if he had withdrawn from the race and he asked rhetorically: “Me?”

He declined to comment on the issues discussed with the nation’s number two citizen but said he was still consulting over his bid to head the ninth senate.

“This is not the time to talk now because I am still holding consultation,” he said.

Last week, the senator rolled out a nine-point agenda which he said he would implement if elected the next senate president.

The senator, in the agenda, promised to make the office of the senate president less attractive by reducing the unnecessary privileges attached to it.