BREAKING: Akpabio is senate minority leader

Godswill Akpabio, former governor of Akwa Ibom state and Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) senator (Akwa Ibom northwest), has been named the minority leader of
the senate.

Akpabio was nominated by the south-south caucus of the PDP in the senate.
His nomination, however, is against the standing rules of the senate, which exempts
first-term senators from holding principal positions.
Last Wednesday, Gabriel Kolawole, justice of the federal high court, Abuja rejected an
application seeking to stop Bukola Saraki, senate president, from the naming Akpabio
as minority leader of the senate.
Alaye Pedro and Okechukwu Ibeh, both members of PDP, had filed an ex parte
application challenging the party’s choice of Akpabio as senate minority leader.
They contended that the possible emergence of Akpabio as senate minority leader
would breach the senate standing orders exempting first-term senators from holding
such a position.
But the court struck out their application, paving way for Akpabio’s nomination on
Monday.
The PDP, which lost the majority seat in the senate to the All Progressives Congress
(APC) after the March general election, had zoned the position of senate minority leader
to the south-south.