PDP nominates Philip Aduda as senate minority leader

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has nominated Philip Aduda, senator representing the federal capital territory (FCT), as the minority leader of the senate.

The opposition party also named Chukwuka Utazi, senator representing Enugu north, as the senate minority whip.

The nominations of Aduda and Utazi were contained in a letter by Iyorchia Ayu, PDP chairman, read by Senate President Ahmad Lawan on Tuesday.

Enyinnaya Abaribe, senator representing Abia south, had recently resigned his membership of the PDP and stepped down from his role as minority leader.

Abaribe left the party after withdrawing from the PDP governorship primary election in Abia, describing the exercise as a “charade”.

Earlier in the month, the PDP south-east caucus asked Ayu to nominate Uche Ekwunife, lawmaker representing Anambra central, as the minority leader in the upper legislative chamber.

“We the underlisted PDP Senators of the south-east zone hereby nominate Distinguished Senator Uche Lilian Ekwunife as a replacement for Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe as the position was zoned to the south-east,” the south-east senators had said.

Utazi’s new position was occupied by Emmanuel Bwacha, senator representing Taraba south, who defected to the APC from the PDP earlier in the year.