By Samuel Ogidan
Abuja
Former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has said that the emergence of Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy President of the Senate is in the interest of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking with journalists shortly after a meeting with the Peoples Democratic Party’s leadership at the party’s headquarters in Abuja, Akpabio said: “The election of Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President, I think, is good for democracy.
“Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President was freely elected by senators and, you recall, he scored about 54 votes and the total number of PDP senators is 49, which means he was accepted across party lines.
“It is also possible that some of the PDP senators didn’t vote for him and we probably have more APC senators voting for him than the PDP, but the most important thing is that he was voted across party lines. That is how the senators voted him to work with the Senate President and ensure a very stable Senate that will be productive, a Senate that will have serious continuity.
“And I also think it is good for President Buhari that, at the end of the day, you have a Deputy Senate President, who has been here before and who is not from the APC so that we can look at things from a holistic point of view, from a national perspective and not always from one party’s perspective.
“I believe that the 8th Senate will achieve far more than the 7th Senate had achieved in Nigeria because it will operate not from a partisan point of view but from a bipartisan point of view.
“I stand by the Deputy Senate President, the Senate President and the Senate for what they have done.”
When asked by reporters if he was interested in the position of the Senate Minority Leader, which was zoned by the party to the South-south, Akpabio said: “It is not a question of interest; it is a question of capacity. So, if I have the capacity my colleagues will decide.”