By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Deputy Minority Whip and Senator representing Osun West Senatorial District, Senator Olalere Oyewumi has debunked the news making rounds in some quarters that external influence played a role in the emergence of principal officers of the 10th National Assembly.
Sundista Post recalls that prior to the announcement of the principal officers, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) endorsed His Excellency Aminu Tambuwal as the favoured candidate for the party. The release of the list also elicited reaction from the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
However, the Deputy Minority Whip while fielding questions from nwwsmen in his office on Tuesday, said contrary to the rumour that it was a victory for Wike-led G5, said there was no external influence to the emergence of the principal officers.
According to him, ‘ That is another rumour. That is another very big rumour. I am from Osun State, South West. To the glory of God , the Minority Leader is from Plateau State. I have a governor in my state, senator Ademola Adeleke who supported this post I am holding. My chairman, Senator Simon has a governor in Plateau State who equally supported his emergence. It was not a one-man show. Leadership of the party too, governors were involved but because the whole thing looks like a surprise to a lot of people, then indinuation will come because of what has been on ground before in the party.
He said it was the internal affairs of the Senate to elect their Principal officers and that was why they had to collect signatures from their members despite that the Senate was on recess.
“There was no external influence on our emergence that is why we went on signing. We signed across board- Labour Party, Accord Party, YPP, SDP and the PDP. Even within the PDP majority signed for us, between 22 to 24 senators signed for us. So are they saying that it is Wike that is controlling everybody in the party? It was a spontaneous reaction that happened because people were not expecting new faces. May be their mind was somewhere else and when it came the way it came and the number was overwhelming; more than two’third of the people so people will say something. That is the politics.
On the issue of oversight, Senator Oyewumi assured that the 10th Senate is taken the issue of oversight very seriously. He said it’s predicated on this that the Senate President yesterday announced a committee on Legislative Compliance to ensure that the decision taken during oversight is followed to implementation level. By the time the product of our action starts coming out, Nigerians will know that “ten” is a special number
National Assembly will do their work , We will give our maximum support and we are not ready to play politics at the National Assembly, no. We are here as the Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and our people must be first in our minds. That is our agenda. We have sat down, we have designed our agenda and we have all pledged not disappoint Nigerians.
