Why Saraki lost PDP presidential ticket – APC

Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress Tuesday said the deceitfulness of the Senate president Bukola Saraki cost him the presidential ticket of the opposition People’s Democratic Party.

“When a leader cannot be trusted, cannot be relied upon, and cannot keep agreements, the people take due cognizance and records of these actions and respond with their votes at the appropriate time,” APC spokesman, Yekina Nabena said in a statement.

Saraki, who defected from the APC to PDP late July, vied for the presidential ticket of the opposition party but lost in a keenly contested presidential primary election last Sunday.

The election saw a former vice-president Abubakar Atiku geared 1532 votes to get the ticket followed by Aminu Tambuwal who scored 693 votes to claim second, while the Senate president came third by polling 317 votes.

The APC noted that the result of the exercise showed that the party “the PDP delegates have given clear indication that they are fed up with Saraki’s political style.”

Nabena added that throughout Saraki’s tenure as President of the Senate, it has been one confrontation between the assembly leadership and the executive or other arms of government in “furtherance of his treacherous politics”.

Prior to his defection in July, Saraki was accused of being the stumbling block to the progress of the President Muhammadu Buhari led government for failing to confirm the president’s appointees and delay in approval of the national budget.

Since his defection, APC on different occasions had asked Saraki to vacate his seat as president of the Nigerian Senate which its national leader described as “a crown” belonging to the party and has afterwards plotted to impeach Saraki.

The party’s acting spokesman again emphasized that like the “delegates of the PDP have rejected Saraki as their presidential candidate. Let the Senators also do likewise by rejecting the greedy, deceitful and unreliable Senate President as their leader.

“A new President of the Senate, free from all allegations of criminality is needed now.”