Exclusive! Ekweremadu frantic, begs PDP lawmakers to shelve mass defection plan to APC

All is not well within the camp of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the National Assembly, particularly the Senate.

Senators elected on the platform of the party, are plotting to defect en mass to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Already, four PDP senators have defected to the APC, while three seats have been lost through rerun elections.

Those that already defected are Senators Joshua Dariye, Yeye Omogunwa, Nelson Effiong and Andy Uba.

The PDP has lost a seat to APC in Imo and Rivers State through rerun elections. It also lost one in Anambra, although a rerun election is yet to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Deputy President of the Senate, who is the defacto opposition leader in the Red Chamber, has been making frantic efforts to prevail on his party members not to dump the PDP.

Ripples Nigeria learned that Ekweremadu has held series of meetings with the Minority Whip of the Senate, Senator Philip Aduda who represents the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Aduda, it was gathered, is plotting to dump the party on who’s back he rode to secure elections to the National Assembly since 2007, to defect to the APC.

He is not plotting to defect alone, rather, he intends to persuade the two FCT lawmakers in the House of Representatives who are also PDP members. The two FCT representatives are Zephaniah Jisalo and Zakari Angulu.

A staff in the Deputy Senate President’s media office, told Ripples Nigeria that, Ekweremadu held similar meetings with the other four PDP lawmakers who have already defected to the APC.

The media aide said Akpabio who is supposed to intervene in such situations, is currently handicapped because of his running battle with anti-graft agency, EFCC which is on the verge of arraigning him in court to account for his tenure as Governor of Akwa Ibom State.

Aduda, it was gathered is unwilling to give in to pleas from Ekweremadu. His reason for planning to defect, it was gathered, was to enable him run for another term in office in 2019.

FCT which he represents in the Senate, has six area councils, namely, Abuja Municipal Area Council, Bwari Area Council, Kuje Area Council, Abaji Area Council, Gwagwalada Area Council and Kwali Area Council.

Ironically, the PDP does not control any of the six area councils in the territory and this may spell doom for his reelection bid in 2019.

Apart from Aduda, some Senators from the North-East States of Gombe and Yobe who are currently in the PDP, are also making final moves to cross to APC. Ekweremadu it was gathered, is also making moves to convince them to jettison the idea.

In mid September, 2016, Senator Dariye, made the first move and dumped the PDP, under which he served as Governor of Plateau State for eight years for the ruling APC. In nine years, Dariye has moved from the PDP to the Labour Party (LP) and back to the PDP before his recent defection to APC.

“My decision is informed by the protracted division at the national level of the PDP that led to the massive movement of my supporters to APC. Arising from this, I therefore write to formerly inform you of my decision to go along with my supporters. I thank you for your understanding,” Dariye had said in a letter read by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

On November 30th, 2016, Senator Omogunwa (Ondo South), dumped the PDP and joined APC. He cited the crisis in the PDP, as well as the need to work for the election bid of Rotimi Akeredolu who is now the Governor of Ondo State. His defection caused an uproar in the Senate and PDP lawmakers who were angered by the move, staged a walkout in protest.

Also in January, 2017, Senator Effiong from Akwa Ibom State, defected to APC. Effiong was the first Senator from the South-South and the South-East to dump the PDP.

While announcing his defection, Senator Effiong said: “I have decided that no reasonable politician who is worth his salt would remain and allow his people to be drifting about without a direction. So I have decided today, the 19th day of January, 2017 to resign from the PDP and move to the party that is bringing peace and direction to this country, the APC. So I move.”

The latest is Senator Andy Uba from Anambra State. He defected on the 21st of February, 2017. According to Senator Uba, APC has ideology and focus which he said he needed to tap into, to provide quality representation to his constituents. Sources familiar with his defection, however believe that he took the move in order to pave the way for him to contest on the platform of APC in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra State.

Uba had further said that he joined APC because of other personalities in the party with sound ideas and whom he looked up to in politics. He listed some of the personalities to include the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige and APC National Auditor, Chief George Muoghalu. Uba had stressed that with such calibre of people, the party would take the State to enviable heights.

The law is clear on what can necessitate a lawmaker’s defection to another party. According to section 68 (1)g of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected: provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored (1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

So far, it is unclear if Ekweremadu has made headway in his bid to get his colleagues to remain the the same boat with him, but feelers indicate that the senators who he met with may not have given him any guarantees.

The party on its part may not be able to play any vital role in getting the potential defectors to remain in the PDP, as the leadership tussle between Senators Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi has factionalized the party, creating more room for disenchantment.

What they plan to do will be evident in the next few weeks, more so as there are strong rumours that many stalwarts of the party may dump the PDP, for a new party in the works, in the event that the Makarfi faction loses its appeal at the Supreme Court which is the last hope of retrieving the party from the Sheriff faction.