There are fresh indications that the Peoples Democratic Party members in the upper chamber have perfected strategies to produce a successor to Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President if he is removed as a result of his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
But
the All Progressives Congress senators have vowed to resist any attempt by
their PDP colleagues to take over the red chamber from them.
Punch
learnt that the PDP senators met for several hours on Monday night to take a
final decision on the issue.
It
was not clear whether the current Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu,
would be allowed to take over the top Senate seat.
A
source at the meeting claimed that some people were of the opinion that
Ekweremadu should resign alongside Saraki as a sacrifice while an APC senator
from the North-Central would emerge as the deputy.
Confirming
the development to journalists on Wednesday, the Chairman, Senate Committee on
Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaboshi, said the PDP would produce the
next Senate President.
He
said, “Should the incumbent, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, is forced to
vacate the office, we have perfected necessary arrangements to take over the
upper chamber.”
He
said the PDP was ready to replicate the current system in the United States of
America, where the Republicans are in charge of the parliament, while the
Democrats are in control of the executive.
He
said, “Well, I wish the APC the best of luck if they are on a wild goose chase.
But I want you to mark what I am saying. I was the first to address the press
in Port Harcourt and I told them that Saraki was going to win the Senate
Presidency and I gave them my reasons.
“Then,
nobody ever thought that Saraki was going to win. People were saying that APC
had decided. But it was clear to me that he was going to win and I had to
address the press. Eventually, we went there, he won. If, but God forbids,
because we don’t see it coming, by chance, Saraki is removed, I can tell you
that the PDP will produce the next Senate President.”
Speaking
on how the PDP intends to get the support of other lawmakers to produce the
next Senate President, Nwaoboshi said, “We only need three and we have them.”
He
added, “The calculation is very clear to me; the calculation is very clear to
the PDP. When I told them that Saraki was going to win, I did a lot of
mathematical calculations based on the facts on the ground and it is even
clearer to me now that the PDP will win it.
“If
anybody is thinking that a PDP man is going to vote against a PDP candidate, he
is telling you a lie. We have people and we know how to get the people from the
APC. We will win and that will be very interesting. What is happening in
America is going to happen in Nigeria. America has a Republican Senate but the
executive is led by Democrats.
“In
any case, my party, the PDP, we have resolved in our meeting to support him
(Saraki). So, there is no basis for him to resign.”
However,
senators, elected on the platform of the APC, are not taking the plot of their
PDP colleagues lightly as they held a meeting last week in the house of a
former Sokoto State Governor, Senator Aliyu Wammako, in Abuja.
Although
the meeting was initially said to have been called with a motive to get all
Senators of the APC to unite behind Saraki, it was later learnt that senators
at the meeting were more concerned about the embarrassment disunity was causing
the ruling party in the Senate.
No comments:
Post a Comment