SOME Peoples Democratic Party’s senators are set to dump the
ruling party for the opposition All Progressives Congress as soon as the senate
resumes in January.
A source told our correspondent in Abuja on Monday that the
number of PDP senators, who have concluded their defection plan, was “enough to
alter the configuration of the upper chamber.”
The senators are said to be aggrieved over what they
described as the shoddy handling of their party affairs by its elected
officials and they are set to join their 37 colleagues in the House of
Representatives who defected from the PDP to the APC last week.
One of the senators confirmed to our correspondent in Abuja
on Monday that their movement to the APC had become fait accompli.
The senator, who craved anonymity, said, “The country should
be restructured on the foundation of truth. That is our position. We will soon
join the APC like our governors and our colleagues in the House of
Representatives. This will happen in January by God’s grace.
“We are in court already and the court has fixed January 22
for hearing. Already INEC had said it lacked the powers to declare our seats
vacant. So we are on course.”
The source added that a step in that direction had been
taken last week Wednesday when the aggrieved senators and members of the House
went to court to restrain the leadership of the National Assembly and the PDP
from declaring their seats vacant in case they defect.
The senator who spoke to our correspondent is from the
South-South zone.
A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, had last week
restrained the leaderships of the PDP, the National Assembly and the INEC, from
declaring vacant, the seats of federal lawmakers because of defection to
another party.
The injunction specifically affected the National Chairman
of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur; Senate President David Mark; Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal; and the INEC.
The order by Justice A.R. Mohammed was sequel to a motion
filed by 79 lawmakers in the National Assembly, made up of 22 senators and 57
members of the House of Representatives.
The lawmakers, among others, sought an order of the court
restraining the defendants from declaring their seats vacant.
The 22 senators named as plaintiffs were, Bukola Saraki
(Kwara Central), Bello Gwarzo (Kano North), Senator Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West),
Senator Magnus Abe (River South-east), Wilson Ake (Rivers West), Senator Shaba
Lafiagi (Kwara North), Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) ,Aisha Alhassan (Taraba
North), and Ali Ndume (Borno South).
Others were, Ahmed Zannah (Borno Central) Simeon Ajibola (Kwara
South), Bindowo Jubrilla (Adamawa North), Abdulaziz Usman (Jigawa North-east),
Danladi Sankara (Jigawa North-west), Abdulmumuni Hassan (Jigawa South-west),
Hassan Barata (Adamawa South), Umaru Dahiru (Sokoto South), and Ahmad Maccido
(Sokoto North).
The rest were Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East), Garba Mohammed
(Kano Central), Isa Galaudu (Kebbi North) and Ahmed Alkali (Gombe North).
Some of the senators listed as plaintiffs in the matter had
however dissociated themselves from the defection plan.
To date, no PDP senator has formally declared membership of
the APC unlike their 37 House of Representatives’ colleagues who defected to
the APC last week.
And while the PDP has lost majority membership in the House
to the APC, the ruling party still controls the majority in the senate with 73
PDP senators against 33 for the APC.
Labour Party also has three while the All Progressives Grand Alliance
has only one senator.
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