Former Minister of State for Defence, Mr Musiliu Obanikoro on Sunday said the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal should have resigned his position after decamping to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), insisting that “he wants to eat his cake and have it”.
Mr Obanikoro added that the PDP already knew the Speaker would decamp to the APC, maintaing that “there is no surprise in that. We knew he was going to go, it was just a question of when and we needed for him t o officially stand up and own up to the fact that his body is somewhere else and the body is just with us (PDP) and we glad that finally he has let the cat out of the bag”, he said on Politics Today on Sunday.
He however noted that though the party has “lost the man, it is not losing the position”, adding that “I believe that the most honourable thing for him to have done is to resigne and then cross over to the other side and remain there.
“You don’t have to be a speaker to function in the National Assembly” he added.
He further noted that the “rule is very clear; you cannot be in a minority in the House of Representatives and become the presiding officer”.
Mr Obanikoro also noted that all PDP members were elected to execute the manifesto of the party “and that is why it becomes very important for him (Tambuwal) to recognise that and save the institution from unnecessary crisis.
“Because what is going to happen right now is that the members of our party (PDP) will not sit back and allow him to preside”, insisting that “Tambuwal should do the needful and save himself the embarrassment and save the institution the crisis that will follow this situation that he has created”, he said.
Mr Obanikoro also praised the police for “acting rightly” by withdrawing the security details of Mr Tambuwal, adding that “they must be pro active” in carrying out their duty.
The Nigerian Police Force had redeployed all of its personnel attached to the Speaker, barely 48 hours after he announced his defection to the APC.
In a statement signed by the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr Emmanuel Ojukwu, noted that the action of the Inspector –General of Police is in line with the provision of section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
Mr Tambuwal had cited his political future and political consideration of Sokoto, his home state, as reasons for his decision to decamp to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
