A group in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Concerned PDP League (CPDPL) has warned the Acting National Chairman of the party, Amb. Umar Damagum, against endorsement of former Sokoto governor, Aminu Tambuwal as the Minority Leader of the 10th Senate.
The group, said this in a statement signed by it chairman, Mr Daboikiabo Warmate, on Tuesday while rejecting the purported nomination of Tambuwal as minority leader of the 10th Senate.
The position of the Senate leader is expected to be filed when the Senate resumed from its short recess next on 4 July.
But CPCDL said the performances of Tambuwal as the leader of the PDP Governors Forum Chairman and Speaker of House of Representatives were not impressive enough to earn him the position of the majority leader.
It also accused the former governor of using and dumping the PDP.
Warmate said that instead of Tambuwal, the position should rather be zoned to a state in the North-Central, precisely Plateau.
“That his ambition is dead in its imagination, how much more arrival; nevertheless, the past has caught up with him,” he said.
Warmate stated that Tambuwal had during his leadership as Speaker of the 8th House of Representatives given to him by the PDP, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“It is with great disappointment and shock to have read on the papers that Tambuwal, the former Governor of Sokoto State and PDP Governors Forum Chairman, wants to be the minority leader of the 10th Senate.
“Somebody that in 2014 took the House of Representatives Speakership we gave to him and defected to another party. This same person eventually came back to the party.
“Now, he wants to be the minority leader of the 10th Senate; we will not give support to you.
“Look, for many years, he was the PDP Governors Forum chairman, but could not speak against the suppression and sufferings of Nigerians,” Warmate said.
According to him, Tambuwal cannot be trusted the second time and does not have the needed courage to be the Minority Leader of the 10th Senate, judging from his antecedents.
He called for a mid-term convention to be followed by the dissolution of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to give room for fresh ideas.
The group also urged the Acting National Chairman of the party, Amb. Umar Damagum, not to sign any letter introducing Tambuwal as the Minority Leader of the 10th Senate.
“The former PDP Governors Forum Chairman, performed woefully as a leader of the opposition party.
“No, enough is enough; PDP members cannot be used and dumped.
“It is Peoples Democratic party (PDP), not Elite Democratic Party or Stakeholders Democratic Party, and that is what we want them to know.
“We will not allow members, leaders or any leader to use the party and dump it at will, no! That is unacceptable. We need to tell them the truth.”
Warmate commended the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, for providing the needed opposition voice in the eight years of the APC Buhari-led Federal Government.
(NAN)
