Kalu made this known during a press briefing on Tuesday morning at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.

The chief whip of the Ninth Senate, Orji Kalu has said he has no plan to step down in his bid to become Senate President.

The lawmaker made this known during a press briefing on Tuesday morning at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.

He also added that he was in talks with one of the contenders for the Seanet Presidency, former Zamfara governor, Abdulaziz Yari over collaboration and partnerships.

The National Working Committee of the All Progressive Party had named Senators Godswill Akpabio and Jibrin Barau as its preferred candidates for the office of the Senate President and Deputy respectively.

Senator Kalu said, “I won’t step down for anybody.

“We are talking with Governor Yari. Our group and his group are talking intimately and in partnership. We will make sure that no one zone can produce the Senate presidency. Like I used to tell people, no zone can produce the president of Nigeria.

“What we are trying to do with Senator Yari is a united partnership that will work for Nigeria. In the coming days or weeks, that partnership will be unveiled, so we are in serious talks. I cannot deny it; Yari is a friend of mine and I’m his friend and we have decided to talk. We have been speaking for the past four weeks and the result will be unveiled by our sponsors, he has his sponsors and I have my sponsors.”

He added, “The sponsors will come together to decide what direction this partnership will be. I’ll be very happy to reveal what the sponsors will say. Two of us are thinking of the integrity of the Senate and support President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima. If you are thinking that what happened during Saraki’s time, it will never happen again.”

Recall that in 2015, Bukola Saraki, a former governor of Kwara state, defied the All Progressives Congress to emerge senate president. The ruling party at the time chose current Senate President Ahmad Lawan.

The chief whip noted that the collaborations of Kalu-Yari won’t disappoint Nigerians.

He said, “We are capable of representing ourselves; Yari-Kalu – Kalu-Yari – we won’t disappoint Nigerians. We

Former federal lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani has taken to Twitter to react following the removal of the fuel subsidy regime by President Bola Tinubu.

Recall that Tinubu had during his inaugural speech, said the subsidy is no longer sustainable in the country, stressing that it is gone.

Reacting, Sani, in a tweet on his verified Twitter handle, lauded President Tinubu, stating that it is the right time to take tough decisions that are capable of revamping the nation’s economy.

He wrote: “Within seven months last year, the CBN ‘defended’ the naira with $11.24 billion. Currently, petrol subsidy consumes N400 billion monthly.

“There is no better time to take tough economic decisions to revamp our economy than now. The culture of allocating foreign exchange to elites with multiple bureaus de change to sell on the black market must end.

“The opacity of the subsidy regime’s chains of fraud must also end.”

President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who was sworn in on Monday, May 29 has made his first set of appointments as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In the appointments, he named Ambassador Kunle Adeleke as the State Chief of Protocol (SCOP) to the President.

He also appointed former Lagos State Commissioner of Information, Dele Alake as the Presidential Spokesman and Olusegun Dada Special Adviser, Digital Media.