A total of eleven Senators who decamped from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP are today set for a showdown with the Senate leadership. Meanwhile, it was learnt yesterday that the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark has received legal advice not to read the joint letter of defection sent by the 11 senators despite the insistence of the Senators that he does so.
The said Senators had penultimate week written a joint letter giving notice to the Senate President of their defection from the PDP to the APC but Mark and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu had in different Senate sessions refused to read out the letter and by that, frustrating their plans to change their seats and allow them sit with fellow senators in the ranks of the opposition.
Monday’s face-off follows last Wednesday’s abrupt adjournment when the Senate President at the end of a closed-door session on the issue promised to seek legal advice on how to proceed on the issue.
Multiple sources close to the Senate leadership have revealed that the Senate President has decided not to read the letter of defection from the Senators for several reasons. especially the fact of an outstanding court order asking the Senate to maintain the status quo.
Two of the affected Senators who spoke on their plan yesterday said that since the Senate President has refused to toe the constitutionally required path by reading their joint letter, that they have adopted their “Plan B” of moving with their feet across the carpet to the APC side of the chamber. He said since they have already obtained their APC membership cards in the party’s on-going registration, they can no longer sit with the Senators of the PDP fold.