Senators of the All Progressives Congress, grouped as Unity Forum have disputed reports that the party held a shadow primary election at the members retreat in Abuja at the weekend.

While the forum said that what the party achieved at the retreat was to forge a consensus in support of Senator Ahmed Lawan as senate president and George Akume as deputy president, Senator-elect Dino Melaye said 35 out of the 59 APC senators-elect actually endorsed Sen. Bukola Saraki (APC Kwara-Central) for the topmost post in the National Assembly.

Accordingly to Melaye, the position has already been zoned to the North Central, where Saraki comes from as against the 'consensus' said to have been built around Lawan from Yobe, in the north east.

"Of the 59 Senators of the APC, 35 of us present here today hereby reaffirm our collective commitment and resolution to ensure the candidature of Saraki as the Senate President of 8th Assembly. We have also resolved that the office of the Deputy Senate President be zoned to the North-East.

"All senators from the North-Central zone have taken a firm position that they are only interested in the office of the Senate President," he said.

But in a statement today, four senators-elet from four geo-political zones, including the North central reaffirmed commitment to the consensus to back Lawan from north east.

"For the records, there was no time before the retreat, during the retreat or after the retreat where and when the issue of a primary election to pick the Senate President was tabled or agreed upon. Nowhere in the party leadership structure can we find the mandate for the conduct of any election with regard to the emergence of the Senate Presidency candidate. Any contrary information, out there in the Social or any kind of media is false, self –serving and intended to mislead the public.

"As far as we know, the National Chairman of the party, John Oyegun gave the advice that we all meet in an effort to build a consensus among the different camps towards finding an harmonious solution. That was how far it went. There was no election that was called. It was now left for the APC members at the retreat to internally bond together to find a workable solution. To this end, different Caucuses met from the entire geo-political zone to discuss the candidacy of those contending for the Senate Presidency. After the Caucusing, the members of the Unity Forum comprising of Senators from the North East, North Central, North West and South West reached a resolution to support the Senator Lawan Ahmad and Senator George Akume ticket for the Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively. This collaboration is encompassing and accommodating of all the tendencies within the Party in the overall interest of the party and Nigeria. Presently, about 37 Senators have agreed to the Lawan/Akume arrangement. We decided to disclose this to check the falsehood flying around.

"What we are trying to do is to make things easy for the party by putting the interest of Nigeria first. In the light of the above, we wish to state expressly that the effort to convince more Senators to participate in the consensus building within our party is ongoing. We recognize the discretion of each Senator to vote any candidate.

"We affirm the supremacy of the party while the interest of the Country must be paramount. We cannot blame anyone for personal ambition but such ambition cannot be superior to the stability, credibility and cohesiveness of the National Assembly. Thus, we subscribe to the notion that we must work with and within our party, APC to resolve any contentious issue.

"The alliance forged by Senators Lawan and Akume alongside other members offers the APC the best window of opportunity to resolve the issue of the Senate presidency and take to a higher standard from the legacy left by the 7th Senate of the Federal Republic."

The statement by the Unity Forum was signed by Senator Robert Ajayi- South West, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim-north east, Senator Barnabas Gemade, north central and Senator Abu Ibrahim Northwest.