Aides explain Speaker’s absence from Sokoto rally
There were strong
indications last weekend that
Speaker Aminu Tambuwal of
the House of Representatives
may have quit the ruling
People’s Democratic Party,
PDP. Though no official
confirmation came from
Tambuwal’s office at press
time last night, PDP chieftains
who confided in Nigerian
Pilot swore that the Speaker
is a member of opposition
All Progressives Congress,
APC, even as they fear that
the Speaker’s 2015 bid to
govern Sokoto state is now in
jeopardy.
But his media aides insisted
that Tambuwal is still in PDP
with one of them saying that
he was on lesser Hajj when
Jonathan led PDP chieftains
to receive former Sokoto
state governor, Attahiru
Bafarawa to the ruling party.
The aide however failed to
give convincing reasons why
nobody, including Deputy
Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha
represented the Speaker at the
rally given its importance and
the fact that it took place in
Sokoto which is Tambuwal’s
home state.
Tambuwal, whose interactions
with opposition groups and
personalities in the country had
long given him out as one who
was deliberately flouting PDP’s
constitution and the need to
avoid been seen or perceived
as one that was conspicuously
absent at last Saturday’s grand
reception for former governor of
Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa
into the PDP from the APC by
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Notable leaders of the PDP
from the state and across the
PDP were present at the event,
save for Tambuwal who, though
a member of the party, is strongly
believed to be hobnobbing with
the opposition.
“We knew all this while that
he never belonged here; but
he has always pretended to be
with us while his soul belongs
in the opposition camp. Thank
God for this Sokoto event that
has exposed him and his antiparty
tendencies,” retorted a
PDP elder who added, “we are
still studying Tumbuwal’s body
language.”
It was learnt that the PDP may
have ruled the Speaker out of
the Sokoto governorship race
in 2015 given “his disloyalty,
dishonesty scheming and antiparty
activities,” the PDP elder
further said.
But the Speaker’s media aide,
Andrew Oota in a telephone
interview reacted thus: “we are
talking about the number four
man in this country. If he will
decamp, he will do it in the open
and not by his body language.
He has not left PDP; he is still a
member of PDP. He traveled for
lesser Hajj that was why he was
not in Sokoto.”
Tambuwal who was initially
rumoured to be nursing a
presidential ambition, mid last
year, settled for governorship on
the platform of PDP. His body
language however, continued to
portray him as one leader that
could belong to the opposition.
The increasing audacity of the
APC in the House, according to
observers, was long attributed
to the backing of the Speaker
who it was also learnt, has
been promised the Sokoto state
governorship ticket by the APC.
But though he had the firm
promise by the opposition, the
Speaker allegedly continued to
lobby for the same ticket from the
PDP with a promise to positively
manage the rising opposition in
favour of the president