• 10 senators abandon suit

 From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja
Cracks have appeared in the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) as not less than three of the defected Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors may return to the party. There was pressure on them.

Daily Sun gathered in Abuja yesterday that Murtala  Nyako, Aliyu Wamakko and Rabiu Kwankwaso, governors of Adamawa, Sokoto and Kano respectively may eventually yield to entreaties to return to the fold.

On November 19 last year, five PDP governors, members of the aggrieved G-7 governors, left the party for APC. Nyako defected to the APC alongside four colleagues including the governors of Rivers, Sokoto, Kano and Kwara. Governors Sule Lamido and Babangida Aliyu of Jigawa and Niger states respectively refused to move with their colleagues.

Fresh indications, however, have emerged that of the five governors, three are predisposed to return to PDP as “the old trouble which pushed them out of the party has been resolved.”

The governors promised that as soon as the former chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, vacates office, “they would consider returning to the party.”

Further checks indicate that entreaties are also being made to the Kwara State Governor, AbdulFatah Ahmed, to return to PDP. Talks are also said to be on going with a governor in the South-South and one in the South-East. One will return to the PDP while the other will be a new convert, it was learnt.

In the Senate, however, 12 PDP senators have broken ranks with their colleagues. Daily Sun learnt that at least 10 of them wrote to the Senate leadership dissociating them from the suit instituted at a Federal High Court in Abuja last month.

The 79 lawmakers, including 22 senators, obtained an order restraining Tukur, Senate President David Mark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from declaring their seats vacant.

The 22 senators cited in the suit were: Bello Hayatu Gwarzo (Senate Chief Whip), Mohammed Ali Ndume, Ahmad Zannah, Abdulahi Adamu, Abdulahi Danladi Sankara, Abdulmumini Mohammed Hassan, Umaru Dahiru, Ahmed Mohammed Maccido, Muhammad Shaaba Lafiaji, Simeon Sule Ajibola, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Magnus Ngei Abe, Wilson Asinobi Ake, Danjuma Mohammed Goje, Saidu Ahmed Alkali, Ahmed Hassan Barata, Bindowo Umar Mohammed Jibrilla, Aisha Jummai Alhassan, Ibrahim Abdulahi Gobir, Bashir Garba Mohammad, Abdulaziz Usman and  Sen. Isa Galaudu.

That accord has, however, been broken because even before resumption on plenary, some of them approached the leadership to pledge loyalty and also,their loyalty to the PDP.

In a new twist, 10 senators returned to the court on November 29, 2013 and filed a Notice of Discontinuance Pursuant to Order 50 Rule 2 (1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure Rules, 2009).

The senators said that their names should be removed from the list of the senators who wish to defect to the APC in suit no: FHC/ABJ/ CV/ 621/2013 and copied to the leadership of the Senate.

The court order was received in the Senate on December 2, 2013. All the 10 senators are from the North.

A ranking senator said that after the case was filed at the Federal High Court, “one of the senators, who was supposed to kick-start the defection gale in the chamber developed cold feet and refused to write the Senate President on his move to the APC.”


Source: Sun