From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja & JOE EFFIONG, Uyo
Shocker, this week, awaits Senator Bukola Saraki and other 10 colleagues who have served notice of leaving the Peoples, Democratic Party (PDP) for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC)
Fresh hints emerged at the weekend, that the Senate leadership may have sealed their fate. Reason: The leadership is now resolute, that should the 11 PDP senators insist on moving to the APC, their seats would automatically become vacant.
Daily Sun, however, gathered that APC senators are, however, not taking the threat lightly. They have resolved to make the chamber uncomfortable for the PDP-controlled Senate while a meeting has been scheduled for this evening in Abuja. “We are meeting today and we will strategise for tomorrow’s plenary. The PDP has already shown its hands; we are also going to prepare for them. What is good for the goose is certainly good for the sauce,” a ranking APC senator said yesterday.
Last week, after two closed-door sessions on the defection, Senate reportedly mandated Senate President David Mark to seek legal advice as well as political solution to the stalemate.
But checks at the weekend indicated that “there’s no legal solution just yet, outside the prevailing one,” which subsisted as at Senate adjourned plenary last Wednesday.
A ranking PDP senator who doesn’t want to be unveiled, disclosed that the Senate President is not likely to shift position from the one canvassed in the closed-door session last Wednesday. “There are two cases in court, one from the PDP, which is asking that should its members leave the party before their term expires in 2015, the seats should be deemed vacant.
“On the other hand, the defecting senators are also in court, asking that the status quo ante be maintained and that nothing should happen to their seats. That’s the first stalemate the chamber still has to contend with.
“The defecting senators have been told that nothing can happen in the chamber until either of the cases are either conclusively dealt with or vacated. Now, they are canvassing a political solution; yet, where will that come from?
“Secondly, they can’t defect as a group; they know that the leadership has made it clear that they have to move individually yet, they are insisting on the Senate President reading the joint letter submitted by Senator Saraki. They have been reminded that on no account will Mark read that letter in the chamber. What happened in the House of Representatives cannot which the defecting senators are insisting on. They insist that since it was done in the House, it can also be done in the Senate. That’s not true. Each house of the National Assembly regulates its procedure.”
This argument was punctured by an APC lawmaker who reiterated that the Senate President “can read that letter and damn any consequences from the PDP hierarchy after all, in 2013, he assured the PDP lawmakers during the chairmanship of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur that he would not declare any seat vacant. Why the shift now?”
Meanwhile, Senate may go into an executive session on resumption tomorrow. The chamber will be expecting to hear the outcome of the assignment given to Mark on the “legal advice” which cannot be relayed in an open session.
Thereafter, the chamber is expected to host the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, who will brief senators on the protracted crisis in Rivers State and the role played by his men.
Two weeks ago, Senator Saraki submitted a notice of defection letter to the Senate President on behalf of himself and his 10 colleagues. The letter has now become the bone of contention as Mark has refused to read the letter which had been dogged by legal hurdles in the chamber.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Business, Rules and Ethics Committee, Senator Ita Enang, has told the PDP senators that defecting from the party would include resigning their seats and recontesting under their new party.
Addressing the Uyo senatorial district youth leaders in his country home in Uyo on Saturday, Enang said that there were, however, no threats of defection in the ruling party, adding that when the senators were voted into office, they were not voted by their names but by the political party.
“And I want to assure you that when you voted during the elections, you did not see the name of the person you voted for. You voted the symbol and the name of each of the political parties, and for any person to defect, he would have to go back to the political party at home, seek the consent of the electorate at home before he can change his political party.
“And if you want to change your political party, I think the person may have to come out of it and then come to contest the election again”, he stated.
Enang, who represents Uyo Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State, said all the PDP senators were still in the party, noting that the party still has its complete number of seats at the National Assembly.
He said the unity of the Senate is what is most important as regards the issue of defection, noting that those who would want to defect, would suffer rejection from their supporters, being that they were not supporting them as individuals but were doing so within the structure and platform of the party.
Source: Sun
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