From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja
Ahead of the 2015 general elections, another battle looms in the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as its senators are set to revolt,
unless President Goodluck Jonathan wades in. The agitation is against
the senatorial ambition of 13 governors who are set to wrestle the 2015
tickets from the incumbent lawmakers.
Already, the Senate PDP caucus has intimated President Jonathan of
the ambition of the governors to snatch the tickets, in a countdown to
the party primaries later in the year.The caucus made this known at a meeting with the President at Aso Rock, Abuja last week. In the event that Mr. President refuses to rein in the governors, some of the senators have vowed to leave the PDP for “any opposition party and slug it out with these governors.”
At the meeting, Daily Sun learnt that the issue of automatic tickets to “deserving and loyal members of the party” was reportedly mooted. Furthermore, three former governors, now senators, were allegedly identified as stoking trouble for the President. It was gathered that three former governors are from the North.
“If in this dispensation, only three governors are causing all the problems in the country, imagine the scenario when 13 former governors sit down in the Senate chamber…” the President was reportedly told at the meeting.
Another senator recounted that, “at the meeting with the President, we reiterated loyalty to the party and that the party must also show appreciation by making sure that these governors do not snatch our return tickets. In a worst-case scenario, let the primaries be a level-playing field so that whoever wins will know that he/she was not denied the opportunity of fair play.”
But there seems to be a crack in the caucus as some members do not believe the request for “automatic tickets” from the President and, by extension, the party will work “because, truth be told, most of the governors are also loyal to the President and he would prefer to work with them for a second term than assure lawmakers of return tickets.”
The lawmakers were, however, adamant that they should, at least, be compensated for their loyalty, particularly against the backdrop of the onslaught of defections which hitherto threatened the party in the Senate but which they have been able to successfully contain in the chamber.
Back to the Senate, Daily Sun learnt that at least, six PDP senators have indicated interest to join another party, not necessarily the All Progressives Congress (APC), should the PDP shut them out in the build-up to the 2015 polls.
The senators have said they would wait till the primaries to see what happens “as our governors have made it known to us that nothing and nobody can stop them from going to the Senate.”
Four of the senators are from the South-South while two from the North-East have, for now, adopted a wait-and-see attitude before moving to the opposition.” It will then be a battle of who is more popular to come to the Senate,” one of them said at the weekend.
Meanwhile, four opposition senators may defect to the PDP before April. Two, who were PDP members before defecting to opposition parties are on their way back as they have already defected to the PDP in their constituencies.
Regardless, fresh indications emerged at the weekend on how Senate President David Mark reportedly foiled a plot by the PDP caucus to sack senators from the chamber on Wednesday, February 12.
Daily Sun gathered that at the PDP caucus meeting held at the residence of Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) a day before the game plan was to take the fight to the APC after the opposition party had succeeded in disrupting plenary for close to two weeks over the stalled defection of 11 members.
At Wednesday plenary, Senators Ita Enang and George Sekibo successfully moved constitutional motions from the Senate Standing Orders, urging the Senate President to remove “strangers” in the chamber. Mark refused and reminded them of the cases in court.
The ultimate plan was for the Chairman of the Committee on Works, Senator Ayogu Eze, to move another motion vide Order 17, which would be backed by the caucus, asking the presiding officer to expel the five PDP senators who had hitherto declared for the APC. If Eze had moved the motion and Mark sustained his order, the senators would have been regarded as “strangers” in the chamber consequent upon which the Sergeant-At-Arms would have been ordered to escort them out of the session.
Order 17 stipulates those who may gain entry into the Senate chamber when it is in session and that, “the chamber shall not be granted for any other purpose than the use of Senate.” In the course of the session, the plan leaked to Mark who strongly disagreed and subsequently refused to recognize Eze to speak or raise his order, even after he repeatedly shouted ‘Point of Order’ from his seat.
“The defecting senators have been told to lie low until the legal hurdles are clear after all, the Senate President has given his word, both in executive sessions and at plenary, that he would not declare any seat vacant. That promise holds as far as they don’t tempt him with any further attempts to disrupt the chamber,” a ranking senator said.
REF http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/2015-pdp-govs-senators-war/
No comments:
Post a Comment