PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari praised Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto State when the latter left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014.

At the time, Buhari was seeking for the APC presidential ticket and Tambuwal was Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Tambuwal’s defection at the time was quite dramatic, coming on the last day of plenary before the lawmakers embarked on a recess to recommence sitting in December. In fact, it was the last thing Tambuwal said before adjourning the House sitting.

Impressed by such dexterity, Buhari said he asked about Tambuwal’s profession and was not surprised when he was told that he is a lawyer.

“We will like to thank Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal for what he did yesterday. We were overwhelmed,” Buhari said.

“And it was only yesterday, I admit, that I asked what profession is he and I was told he was a lawyer, I said ‘no wonder’.

“Taking such a remarkable risk and sending everybody on holidays till December is an achievement. By now we will be sounding like a broken record about the objective of the APC. Our intention God willing is to secure this country and to efficiently mend it. So God help us.”

Tambuwal contested and won the Sokoto State governorship election in 2015. However, he has just dumped the APC and returned to the PDP, describing Buhari’s presidency as having impoverished the nation.

“I did not expect that the APC, which promised so much when the PDP stood under the sway of impunity, could not maintain or manage whatever good it inherited,” Tambuwal said while addressing his supporters on his defection.

“It [APC] has also not broken new grounds in any positive sense, but has instead reached historically unprecedented heights of impunity in all manner of vices far above and beyond the challenges which made some of us to leave the PDP about four years ago to join others to form the APC.

“The party has brazenly turned itself into a sanctuary for the corrupt and a machine for rigging and for the rape of democracy.”

In response, Buhari described Tambuwal and his co-defectors, including heavyweights like Senate President, Bukola Saraki and former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwanso, as “bad eggs” in the APC whom God has helped them to get rid of.