Following calls for his resignation by some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has said he will not resign from the office. Ekweremadu who spoke through his media aide, Mr. Ismail Omipidan,said he has no reason to step aside as the Deputy Senate President as he was duly elected into the office. According to Omipidan, “The call for Ekweremadu’s resignation also exposes the hypocrisy of some APC stalwarts. You will recall that when Tambuwal defected (from the PDP) to the APC, all the notable leaders of the party, including Lai Mohammed who was the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, stated clearly that there was nowhere in the constitution where it was stated that the Speaker (of the House of Representatives) must be produced by the majority party; that was their argument. (The current Majority Leader of the House) Femi Gbajabiamila also said so. What has now changed? The constitution has not been rewritten; it is the same constitution. And it is very clear that ‘the senators shall elect the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President from amongst themselves.Where you don’t have a clear majority, there has to be some alliances to make the legislative work go smoothly. These things happened in the states but they never raised eyebrows then.”
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