Moves on to deny PDP Senate Minority Leader

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There is groundswell of underground politics now going on to ensure that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) does not produce the Senate Minority Leader.

Indications in the upper legislative house are that moves are on to block the PDP and allow one of the smaller parties to produce the Senate Minority Leader.

This is coming as a former Governor of Sokoto State, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; his counterpart in Kebbi and Bayelsa states, Senators Mohammed Adamu Aliero; and Henry Seriake Dickson, respectively, as well as five other senators from the minority political parties have warned against what they described as an ongoing attempt to destabilise minority parties in the Senate.

The other five signatories to the statement issued yesterday by the eight senators include Senator Abdul Ningi; Senator Patrick Abba Moro; Senator Ezenwa Francis Onyewuchi; Senator Sumaila Kawu, and Senator Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has 59 Senators; PDP, 36; Labour Party (LP), eight; New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), two; Social Democratic Party (SDP); two; APGA, one; and YPP, one.

With PDP’s overwhelming majority, the main opposition party is strategising to produce the Senate Minority Leader.

Indeed, one of the immediate past governor of one of the South-south states, who is also a member of the PDP is said to be mobilising forces to stop his party from producing the Senate Minority Leader.

Investigation revealed that the former governor is determined to influence the choices of minority leaders in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

The PDP chieftain, it was learnt, wants his loyalist in one of the minority parties to emerge as the Senate Minority Leader, while his loyalist in the PDP emerges as the House Minority Leader.

The former governor, who is believed to be working with the suspected agents of President Bola Tinubu’s government, held a marathon meeting with the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio in the Senate President’s office in Abuja over the matter last week.

The four principal positions for Senators elected on the platforms of the minority political parties are Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip, and Deputy Minority Whip.

Tambuwal, Aliero, Dickson, Ubah, Moro, Ningi, Others Warn against Imposition

Meanwhile, Tambuwal and seven other senators from the minority political parties have warned against what they described as an ongoing attempt to destabilise the minority parties in the Senate.

In a statement issued yesterday, the eight senators who signed the statement stated that it had come to the notice of the minority political parties in the Senate of an attempt by forces inside and outside the Senate to divide the minority parties and foist a pliant and compromised leadership on them.

“We have pledged to work constructively with the new Senate leadership and the Executive branch to deliver good governance to the Nigerian people. We consequently hereby advise and caution that they should not aid any group inside or outside the Senate to divide and destabilise the minority parties and the Senate institution,” the statement explained.

The statement disclosed that the senators of the minority parties would meet when the Senate reconvenes to select their leaders after due consultations with their political parties “without undue interference from anti-democratic forces within or outside the Senate.”

“For the avoidance of doubt, no Senator has yet been endorsed or selected for any Minority position as this would await due process as agreed by all Minority Parties in their last meeting. Attempts to foist a one-party dictatorship would be resisted and would fail.

“We call on all members of the minority political parties to work together in unity to defend the democratic institution of the Senate and Nigeria,” the statement added.

However, President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, said that the 10th National Assembly would partner President Bola Tinubu-led administration to change policies inhibiting the progress and development of the country.