Senators elected on the platforms of opposition political parties have moved against the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar’s bid to foist former Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal as Senate Minority leader.
The agitated senators have vowed to resist Atiku’s move to impose Tambuwal on them just the same way they fought against the imposition of Godswill Akpabio, by the APC and Tinubu on the Senate. A substantial number of opposition Senators voted for Senator Abdullazeez Yari during the contest for the Senate’s top job.
A PDP senator from Rivers State and 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 vowed to resist attempts to impose Tambuwual on them. They expressed their readiness to vote for any person other than him.
The senators insist that Tambuwal has a record of throwing his political allies under the bus at critical moments to promote his selfish interes, and that he lacks the capacity to provide the needed leadership 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 apologise to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu who he betrayed after making him Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The senators stated that they know that Tambuwal, whose regime has come under scrutiny in Sokoto State, is on a mission to use the minority leader position to negotiate for self-preservation and use the platform to run for presidential election in 2027.
One of the sources said, “Can you trace the major political activities of Tambuwal for the past one decade? Do you really think such a politician can be trusted? He seems to have a record of treachery and betrayal of close friends and allies as he did to Jonathan, Wike, Tinubu himself and several others.
“In 2019, he went against his party, the PDP, and a sitting president to rubbish the PDP zoning arrangements just because it favoured him; he always plays the ethnic and religious card when it favours him.
“When he became speaker with the support of opposition elements (that is Tinubu, Buhari and other leaders), he used the platform of speakership to effectively rubbish the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP and defected/abandoned the party that made it possible and moved the APC and negotiated to be governor.
“Buhari, Tinubu, Wamakko (confirm name) and others rewarded him for his treachery against the PDP but his ambition could not be accommodated, so he betrayed Wamako, Tinubu, Buhari and aligned with Atiku and came back to PDP with the APC mandate that was given to him with the hope of running for presidency.
“Wike against all odds backed him and promised to deliver the presidential nomination to him but thank God that did not succeed.”
The senator further recalled that in 2021 he again went for a presidential slot but this time did not get Wike’s support. He then betrayed Wike in the primaries.
“This is the record of the politician Atiku wants to foist as minority leader on the party. Also, his senatorial election in Sokoto is now being contested; he was desperate to come to the Senate with the ambition that he would be rewarded with the position of the Senate president.
“When it emerged that the PDP did not get majority and with the defeat of Atiku and Okowa, Atiku and the PDP then changed their plan to make him minority leader to compensate him.”
According to the senator, it is for these reasons that the PDP and other opposition senators are rejecting him
It was gathered that Wike and his group are capitalizing on this to mobilize support for a senator from the north central who will be unveiled soon.
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