Chat212 - News Mail - Investigates
- Presidency make moves to stop PDP senators from defecting.
- The Presidency has mounted pressure on the leadership of the Senate to persuade aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party senators not to carry out their plan to dump the ruling party for the All Progressives Congress.
A source close to the Senate leadership said that the Senate President, David Mark, had personally held a series of meetings with some of the aggrieved senators with a view to making them have a rethink.
“Meetings are being held to prevent the PDP senators from going ahead with their planned action. I am sure the peace moves are yielding fruitful results, “ he told one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity on Sunday night.
He however did not say when and where the meetings were held and the number of aggrieved lawmakers in attendance.
One of the senators, who also confirmed that the meetings were at the instance of the Presidency, however said most of them had made up their minds to defect to the APC.
The lawmakers, who also did not want his name in print, added that apart from the meetings, Mark had made it a point to contact each of them daily on the telephone, advising them to remain in the PDP.
The senator said, “Already some of us have made up our minds to defect and there is no amount of pressure that would stop us. We will formally write the Senate president when we resume in January.
“However, there are some of us who believe we could still listen to them. They have been discussing. There have been meetings upon meetings which, from all clear indications, are at the instance of the Presidency.”
At the moment, the PDP has 73 senators as against the APC’s 33, Labour Party’s three and one for the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
In the House of Representatives however, members who defected to the APC have vowed not to return to the PDP despite alleged pressure on them to do so.
“No amount of pressure will force us back to PDP. Our decision is a done deal and there is no point crying when the head is already off”, one of the defectors, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, told The PUNCH in Abuja on Monday.
Mohammed, a lawmaker from Kwara State, is the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs.
Thirty seven PDP lawmakers in the House had defected to the APC on December 18, citing “factions” in the ruling party as reason.
The development gave the APC a slim majority advantage over the PDP, with the former controlling 172 members, while the latter dropped to 171.
Findings showed that in a bid to compel them to return to the party, the defectors had been put under pressure by the PDP and the Presidency.
One of them said, “They have used all sorts of tactics, including the carrot, assuring us of return tickets in 2015.
“They have used the political machinery in our states and constituencies to get us to comply, but it is not working.”
The PDP and the Presidency have since asked the Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, and the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare the seats of the affected lawmakers vacant.
But, the lawmakers stated on Monday that they knew that such a thing was likely to happen, a reason they first obtained a court order stopping it before they defected.
Speaking on the issue, the Chairman, House Committee on Justice, Mr. Ali Ahmad, expressed surprise that, in spite of the subsisting court order, the Presidency was still bent on declaring their seats vacant.
Ahmad, a defector, observed that as “recently as just days ago”, the Presidency was still talking of declaring their seats vacant.
“Meetings are being held to prevent the PDP senators from going ahead with their planned action. I am sure the peace moves are yielding fruitful results, “ he told one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity on Sunday night.
He however did not say when and where the meetings were held and the number of aggrieved lawmakers in attendance.
One of the senators, who also confirmed that the meetings were at the instance of the Presidency, however said most of them had made up their minds to defect to the APC.
The lawmakers, who also did not want his name in print, added that apart from the meetings, Mark had made it a point to contact each of them daily on the telephone, advising them to remain in the PDP.
The senator said, “Already some of us have made up our minds to defect and there is no amount of pressure that would stop us. We will formally write the Senate president when we resume in January.
“However, there are some of us who believe we could still listen to them. They have been discussing. There have been meetings upon meetings which, from all clear indications, are at the instance of the Presidency.”
At the moment, the PDP has 73 senators as against the APC’s 33, Labour Party’s three and one for the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
In the House of Representatives however, members who defected to the APC have vowed not to return to the PDP despite alleged pressure on them to do so.
“No amount of pressure will force us back to PDP. Our decision is a done deal and there is no point crying when the head is already off”, one of the defectors, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, told The PUNCH in Abuja on Monday.
Mohammed, a lawmaker from Kwara State, is the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs.
Thirty seven PDP lawmakers in the House had defected to the APC on December 18, citing “factions” in the ruling party as reason.
The development gave the APC a slim majority advantage over the PDP, with the former controlling 172 members, while the latter dropped to 171.
Findings showed that in a bid to compel them to return to the party, the defectors had been put under pressure by the PDP and the Presidency.
One of them said, “They have used all sorts of tactics, including the carrot, assuring us of return tickets in 2015.
“They have used the political machinery in our states and constituencies to get us to comply, but it is not working.”
The PDP and the Presidency have since asked the Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, and the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare the seats of the affected lawmakers vacant.
But, the lawmakers stated on Monday that they knew that such a thing was likely to happen, a reason they first obtained a court order stopping it before they defected.
Speaking on the issue, the Chairman, House Committee on Justice, Mr. Ali Ahmad, expressed surprise that, in spite of the subsisting court order, the Presidency was still bent on declaring their seats vacant.
Ahmad, a defector, observed that as “recently as just days ago”, the Presidency was still talking of declaring their seats vacant.
