Ahead of the resumption of the 10th Senate, Tuesday, July 4th, Senators elected on the platforms of the six opposition political parties have concluded arrangements to move against the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in last February 25th Presidential election, Atiku Abubakar’s bid to foist former Sokoto State Governor, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, PDP, Sokoto South as Senate Minority leader.
The aggrieved Senators have vowed that they would use all available might to resist Atiku’s move to impose former Speaker, House of Representatives, Tambuwal on them, just the way and manner they fought against the imposition of Godswill Akpabio, by the All Progressives Congress, APC and President Bola Tinubu on the Senate where a substantial number of opposition Senators voted for former Governor of Zamfara State, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, APC, Zamfara West during the contest for the Senate’s top job.
Some of the Minority Senators who spoke after a meeting on Wednesday, June 28, said that the indications are clear that with what Tambuwal did against the PDP, he would use the minority leader position to negotiate and apologize to President Tinubu whom he betrayed after making him Speaker of the House of Representatives.
For the Minority, aside the position of Senate Minority leader, other positions are Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip.
With the completion of the elections, the APC is the majority party in the Senate with 59 Senators, the major opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP has 36; the Labour Party, LP has 8; the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP with 2; the Social Democratic Party, SDP has 2 while the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA and the Young Progressives Party, YPP with one Senator each.
A PDP Senator from Rivers State, another Senator from the North and a ranking Senator from the South West who spoke under the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue separately, however vowed to resist attempts to impose Tambuwual on them.
The group while expressing their readiness to vote for any person other than him, is insisting that Tambuwal has a record of throwing his political allies under the bus at critical moments to promote what they described as his selfish interest and lacks the capacity to provide the needed leadership to them as minority leader .
The Senators resolved to vote for any ranking Senator other than the former Sokoto State Governor.
Some of the Minority Senators who spoke after a meeting on Wednesday said that the indications are clear that with what Tambuwal did against the PDP, he would use the minority leader position to negotiate and apologize to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu who he betrayed after making him Speaker of the House of Representatives.
