Senator Uche Ekwunife from Anambra State has been nominated as the new minority leader of the Nigerian Senate.
Ekwunife, who represents Anambra Central Senatorial District, was nominated by the South-East Senate caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to replace Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe.
Abaribe recently resigned as Minority Leader and also dumped the PDP.
Senators from the region made this known in a letter to the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu.
The letter dated June 1, was signed by Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu East), Theodore Orji (Abia Central), Ike Ekweremadu (Enugu West) and Sam Egwu (Enugu North).
Other signatories were Obinna Ogba (Ebonyi Central), Onyewuchi Francis (Imo East), Michael Nnachi (Ebonyi South) and Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North).
The PDP South-East senators in their letter, requested that Ayu accepts Ms Ekwunife’s nomination and write the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to officially inform him of Mr Abaribe’s replacement – Ekwunife – as minority leader.
“…We…nominate Uche Ekwunife as a replacement for Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe as the position was zoned to the South East, the letter read.
The lawmakers recalled that after the defection of former Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Bwacha (Taraba South) to the APC in February, the North-east minority caucus met immediately and nominated Shuaibu Lau (Taraba North) from the same zone as the new deputy minority leader.
They also said when Sahabi Ya’u (Zamfara North) defected to APC in July, Ibrahim Danbaba (Sokoto South) was immediately nominated to replace him as the deputy minority whip of the Senate.
“We humbly request that you kindly forward the name of Uche Ekwunife to the Senate president, as the Senate minority leader.”
(PREMIUM TIMES)
