National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has insisted that Senate President Bukola Saraki must resign following his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Oshiomhole spoke on Wednesday after some senators elected on the APC platform led by the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, met behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting came amidst the gale of defections being witnessed in the party.
Oshiomhole told State House correspondents at the end of the meeting that the right thing for Saraki is to vacate his seat as senate president having left the ruling party.
The former Edo governor said it was a matter of honour for Saraki to leave “the crown in the family it belongs to.”
Oshiomhole said: “But whatever is the reason, we can defect from the party but we can’t defect from Nigeria. The only thing is that there are other consequential issues that every man or woman of honour who had taken such decisions would be expected to follow through.
“I mean you should not collect a crown that belongs to a family and wear it on behalf of the family if for your personal reasons which he has enumerated that he has gone to another family.
“It is just a matter of honour to leave the crown in the house that the crown belongs to.
“As it stands even now, the APC is still the largest party in the Senate. We have 53 senators, that is much more than what the PDP has, or APGA has.”
Oshiomhole said nobody in the APC would be surprised by the decisions of those who defected because the signs were clear before now.
He, however, admitted that it was a tempting moment for the party.
His words: “Nobody in the APC will be surprised about the development. In fact, they have stayed a little bit longer than we thought. Last week, the Kwara State governor said he was leaving but he didn’t say when. So, we are not surprised at all. But these are what I might call temping moments because I had faced similar situations in my state, when people were leaving.”
Saraki and Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed announced their defection from the APC to the PDP on Tuesday.
Another Saraki loyalist and APC spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, also quit the party on Wednesday, followed by Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal.
Last week, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue ditched the APC over the government’s poor handling of farmer-herder violence which has claimed at least 1,300 lives since January.
Ortom’s defection came after dozens of federal lawmakers dumped the APC for the PDP in a sign of growing discontent at President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership as the 2019 general elections approach.
