Posted by By FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja on
Second Republic Speaker and National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief Edwin Ume Ezeoke, and the Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, literarily engaged themselves in a war of words yesterday over the refusal of the latter to grant the former audience in his office.
Second Republic Speaker and National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief Edwin Ume Ezeoke, and the Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, literarily engaged themselves in a war of words yesterday over the refusal of the latter to grant the former audience in his office.
Chief Ezeoke, leading a delegation of the ANPP to the Senate President's office at about 4:00 p.m, was the first to fire the salvo after feeling ridiculed by Chief Nnamani, who told the party leaders that he had no time for them and was therefore not ready to receive them.
Daily Sun gathered that Chief Ezeoke had pleaded with the Senate President to do his delegation the honour of receiving them having already arrived at the office, but Chief Nnamani bluntly refused, claiming that he already had an engagement, an explanation that didn't go down well with the ANPP boss.
Chief Ezeoke was angered the more when he and his team discovered that the Senate President would not budge and was preparing to leave them and go out. There and then, the ANPP national Chairman became angry and fumed, 'But why this? Remember I am a former speaker in this chamber, this is not good!"
Also miffed by the development, the Senate President countered that he was not bothered, adding, 'It is not my business. I don't have an appointment with you, I am going out."
The party Secretary, Senator Seidu Kumo, confirmed that the Senate President snubbed them on the excuse that he didn't prepare to receive them, saying they actually got a call from the Senate President's office to come.
Asked why the ANPP leaders didn't get confirmation for the visit before going ahead, he explained that they were actually slated to visit the Senate President today (Tuesday) but that they got a call from his office that they could come around and that they quickly seized the opportunity and dashed down only to be shunned.
Senator Kumo could, however, not say who actually asked them to come over to the Senate President's office.
Reacting to the development, Special Assistant to Nnamani on Media Matters, Austin Bash Adamu, told Daily Sun last night that the ANPP delegation caused the altercation and should be blamed for the ugly scenario.
He explained that his boss had no plan to receive the ANPP delegation but that they just invaded his office, adding that all explanation that the Senate President had another official engagement at that time fell on deaf ears.
Adamu claimed that Chief Ezeoke was capitalizing on the fact that he was a former speaker which his boss recognized by taking time to explain his situation to them.
The ANPP leaders have been paying visits to agencies, federal officials as well as institutions since coming on board. They have visited the Inspector General of Police, media houses and some other institutions as part of their re-positioning strategy.