The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, to vacate office following his defection on Tuesday from the party to the main opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.

The PDP said its National Working Committee, NWC, has met with its leaders in the House of Representatives on the matter of the defection of the Speaker.
It said the Speaker should do what is needful since his new party is in the minority.

“After a thorough consideration of the matter, the NWC came to a conclusion that the Hon. Speaker, as a responsible elected officer, knows full well what is needful and honourable of him since his new party is in the minority,” a statement by the party’s publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh said.

“We are not unmindful of the fact that Hon. Tambuwal became Speaker on the platform of the PDP as the political party with the majority of seats in the House of Representatives and that this incontrovertible fact has not changed,” he further said.

Tambuwal cross carpeted after months of speculation and had initially denied that he was decamping to the APC despite openly hobnobbing with its leaders attending the party’s meetings.

The more obvious indication that he was joining the APC came more than a week ago when he attended a meeting of the APC in his own state, Sokoto.

Tambuwal had said the state governor, Aliyu Wammako, had invited him for the meeting after he was dumped by a visiting PDP delegation to the state, led by Tony Anenih, the Board of Trustees chairman.