It was a battle of wits in the Senate on Thursday as 11 Senators who tendered a letter of defection from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC) demanded that their letter be read on the floor of the Senate.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided in the absence of Senate President, David Mark, blocked the efforts of the defectors to have the letter read.
Proceedings in the upper chamber were held up for over 30 minutes as APC Senators vehemently protested the refusal of Ekweremadu to read the letter.
While the APC lawmakers were insisting that the letter must be read, their PDP counterparts were plotting and encouraging Ekweremadu not to read the letter.
The 11 lawmakers had submitted a letter of “notification of change of political party” to Mark on Wednesday.
They expected Mark to treat the letter by reading it but for undisclosed reason it was not read.
Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central) who was said to have been unsettled by the antics of the Senate leadership raised a Point of Order to enforce his privilege by calling attention to the letter.
Saraki said that 11 of them wrote a letter to notify the Senate Leadership of their defection from PDP to APC.
He noted that the letter which was given to the Senate President on Wednesday was a notification of change of political party “by myself and ten other senators from the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).”
He added, “So I felt that it was necessary for me to bring to your attention that the letter has not yet been read.”
Ekweremadu promptly responded that the Senate President had traveled.
Ekweremadu promptly responded that the Senate President had travelled.
He said that “before he (Mark) travelled he told me that you (Saraki) had a discussion with him and agreed to have a meeting on Monday.”
Saraki, who appeared not to be satisfied with Ekweremadu’s response thundered: “That is not the case, sir. I submitted the letter yesterday (Wednesday) and he (Mark) indicated the intention that he would like to meet with senators.
“The two issues, submitting the letter and his request for the meeting does not seem that the meeting was subject to the bringing of the letter. So I felt that the two are separate issues.”
Ekweremadu insisted that “unfortunately this is my own understanding of your dialogue with him and he is not here. So I believe that we would stand down any issue relating to that until he comes back.”
Source: The Nation
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