The new Senate Minority Leader Senator, Simon Mwadkwon of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has said that his nomination into the aforementioned post was not fraudulent, as people claim it to be, but he was nominated fairly and legitimately.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, Mwadkwon reiterated that he is not a “rubber stamp” leader, and that nobody put him in the position that he is in, as he was nominated by the members of senate. He said, “It’s clear as regards to how the minority leadership should be elected. Order 27, rule 1, states clearly that the minority leader shall be nominated by the members of the minority parties. They did not specify one party, but by all members of the minority parties, and we have 6 minority parties. These people came together and nominated me to be their leader. And for PDP to have just stayed away, I think they did the right thing.
“All I know is that I am a senator elected under the platform of the PDP, and my dear colleagues, the distinguished senators that are in the minority parties, about almost, they were 50 in number, came together, and I got 36 nominations.”
Addressing the speculations of those who saw him as a rubber stamp, he said that he was fairly nominated. He also said, “The senate president himself does not have a hand in my emergence, so who is it that I will be rubber stamped to? I am a senator of the federal republic of Nigeria. My focus is that Nigeria must go forward, Nigeria must succeed, Nigeria must be seen to be on a right track to development. Therefore, I want to assure you and assure Nigerians that if the senate president or the majority party in the senate brings anything that is insignificant to the progress, development, and peaceful coexistence of Nigeria, certainly, I will stand against it.”
In response to Senator Garuba Musa Maidoki’s allegations that he (Mwadkwon) was appointed fraudulently, he said that the Senator was entitled to his opinions, and he did not wish to create issues with him, seeing that they would be working together for the next four years. He did, however, reiterate that he was nominated fairly and squarely. He said that though he did not contact him, he contacted others to make his intentions known, as it was not possible for him to contact everybody.
Explaining further, Mwadkwon said, “68% of the PDP senators nominated me. We are, the PDP have 36, and out of 36 I got 22. And there was no formal meeting for me or anywhere where some people were induced. I’m not aware of any form of inducement, but I know that my colleagues, the distinguished senators, found me worthy because of my presentation because I met them one on one and I discussed with them.
“I told them that there will be need for us to have somebody that will be approachable, someone that they can rely on, somebody they can trust, and I told them I’m that kind of person that they can trust, they can rely on, and I promised that I would do a possible best to ensure that there is a credible opposition. We are not going to fight war with the ruling party, our aim is that Nigeria must move forward”
Mwadkwon then said that the minority will not relent in getting their rights from the majority party, and that they will provide a credible opposition from the ruling party.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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