ABUJA – The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP on Tuesday expressed optimism that the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, would do the needful since his new party, APC, was in the minority.
Mr Olisa Metuh, the party`s National Publicity Secretary, expressed this in a statement in Abuja, while reacting to Tambuwal`s defection to the APC.
According to the statement, the PDP NWC met with the party`s leaders in the House of Representatives concerning the defection of the speaker.
“After a thorough consideration of the matter, the NWC came to a conclusion that the speaker, as a responsible elected officer, knows full well what is needful and honourable of him since his new party is in the minority,’’ the statement said.
It added that the PDP was mindful of the fact that Tambuwal became speaker on its platform as the political party with the majority of seats in the House of Representatives.
This, it said, was an incontrovertible fact and had not changed.
Also reacting, Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom said the PDP had also suspected such action from him.
He spoke with newsmen at the PDP national headquarters after paying a courtesy call on the party`s NWC to express appreciation to the committee on its efforts at rebuilding the party.
“ We had always suspected that the speaker of the house is in name a PDP member, but in action, an opposition party member.
“What has happened today is a culmination of what we had also suspected all along and I expect that as a man of integrity, he knows the right thing to do.
“That he was elected on the platform of the PDP and today, he has defected to the opposition and there is no crisis or division in PDP, so the law and the constitution is very clear.’’ Akpabio said.
He, however, wished the speaker well in his new party and urged him to do the needful, which according to him, is obeying the rule of law.
Akpabio, who is also the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, said that even with Tanbuwal`s defection to the APC, the party still remained the minority in the house.
“And of course it is the majority party that produces the speaker in the House of Representatives; that is why I say I expect him as an honorable member to do the right thing even without prompting,’’ he said (NAN)
