Following the defection of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, from the ruling APC to the opposition, PDP, ranking Senators yesterday demanded his immediate resignation as the Senate president

The senators who spoke to Daily Trust shortly after Saraki announced his defection, said they will push for his resignation.

A former governor of Nasarawa state, Senator Abdullahi Adamu said the Senate President should resign.

“Saraki has shot himself in the foot, particularly now that the APC has the majority in the Senate and in the National Assembly. If he is a man of honour, he will as well resign as the Senate President,” Adamu said in a phone interview.

Adamu who chairs the Senate committee on Agric said he was not surprised about the defection of Saraki.

“I’m not surprised at all. I have said it many times and I’ve been proven right and I thank God for this. I alerted my party to that fact, I alerted the government to that fact and I alerted Nigerians to the fact that they have made up their minds to decamp from APC.

“The guys were hanging on before going to ensure maximum damage and as far as they are concerned they have attained the level they wanted. They have caused disaffection in the party but what they have failed to create a division in the party. They have failed woefully in this regard,” he said.

Asked whether they will call for the reconvening of the Senate, he said they would consult among themselves and the leadership of their party.

On whether they will allow Saraki to continue to preside the Senate, he said: “of course, that’s not going to be visible. He (Saraki) knows it.”

Another ranking senator from the North East, who is one of the leaders of the Parliamentary Support Group (PSG), said Saraki should summon courage to resign from his position because he clinched it as a member of the APC. ‎

“It’s not surprising because this is something we’ve been expecting. We wish him well, but he must put Nigeria’s interest above his personal interest. He has no political value at all.

“If he has an iota of honour and integrity, he should vacate the seat because he clinched it under the APC. But if it is Saraki that I know, he would like to remain on that seat, but let’s wait and see.

It was also gathered that Speaker Yakubu Dogara is on his way out of the APC as his sour relationship with his state governor, Mohammed Abubakar, is now beyond reconciliation.

The governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal is also expected to dump the APC today with sources close to him saying everything had been set for the movement to PDP

• Culled from a Daily Trust report

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