Tambuwal moves to run for senate after stepping down for Atiku

Indications have emerged that Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, will run for the Sokoto South senatorial seat.

Tambuwal had stepped down his presidential ambition for a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, few minutes before voting commenced at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national convention last weekend in Abuja.

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Tambuwal will complete his second term in office next year. His immediate past Commissioner for Land and Housing, Aminu Bala Bodinga, is PDP’s candidate for the senatorial seat.

However, Bodinga was said to be holding the ticket pending the outcome of the presidential primary. Therefore, he may be asked to withdraw from the race to pave way for Tambuwal to get the ticket in a fresh senatorial primary.

Bodinga has been among the closest allies of Tambuwal since 2015 when he (Bodinga) was at the state assembly as member representing Bodinga South Constituency and their relationship grew stronger in 2018 when he joined the governor in PDP.

In 2019, the governor appointed Bodinga as Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development after losing his state assembly seat to the APC candidate, Tukur Bala, during the general elections.

The governor later redeployed him to the Ministry of Land and Housing from where he resigned and contested the Sokoto South senatorial ticket of PDP and won unopposed.

The senatorial seat is currently occupied by Senator Ibrahim Danbaba who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying he left PDP due to protracted internal crisis. 

However, a source privy to the development told Daily Trust that Danbaba dumped PDP after it became clear that it was the governor who asked Bodinga to aspire for the ticket.

This is not the first time Tambuwal will run for another office after losing the presidential ticket.

In 2018, when he lost the PDP presidential primary in Port Harcourt, Tambuwal took over the governorship ticket from his Deputy, Manir Dan’iya, contested election and won.