.Eyes Senate Minority Leadership position

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA—FORMER governor of Akwa Ibom  State and Senator representing North West senatorial district of the state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, threw his weight behind the election of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President, saying that his emergence, June 9, was across party lines and a vote for experience by the senators.

According to Akpabio, the election of Ekweremadu of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was not only a blessing for democracy, the country, but also for President Muhummadu Buhari’s administration.

Speaking with journalists, yesterday, at Wadata Plaza, National Secretariat of PDP, shortly after he held consultations with  the   National Working Commit- tee, NWC, of the party, Akpabio said the election of an opposition member into such a position at the National Assembly would help ensure that issues before the legislature were  examined in a more wholistic and all encompassing bi-partisan way.

Akpabio, who expressed interest in the position of Senate Minority Leader, which the PDP had already zoned to the South South, further explained that with Ekweremadu occupying such a position, issues in the Senate would be looked at in a bipartisan way which would make the 8th Senate to excel.

He said: “I think it’s very good for democracy because Ekweremadu, the Deputy Senate President was freely elected by senators.

“If you recall, he scored about 54 votes and the total number of PDP members in the senate are about 49. Which means he was accepted across party lines. And it is also possible that some of the senators of PDP did not vote for him and that we probably have more senators of the APC voting for him than the PDP.

“But the major thing is that  he was voted for across party lines. That’s the way the Senate wants it. They want an experienced person to work with the Senate President.”