PDP To Lose 17 Senators To APC

It's more misery for the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, even after the party's unpopular
Bamanga Tukur resigned from his Chairmanship
position; as more senators rom the party are to
defect to the All Progressives Congress, APC,
within days after resumption tomorrow, according
to Senator Bindowo Jibrilla, one of the senators
defecting.
Senator Jibrilla, PDP, Adamawa North, who
disclosed the defection plans in a BBC Hausa
Service interview at the weekend, said the
defecting senators will communicate their plans
through separate letters to the Senate President,
David Mark, shortly after resumption from recess
tomorrow.
The 17 senators are among the 22 others who had
indicated their interest to join the APC before the
Christmas and New Year break began.
He said he had already led the way by joining
APC, saying he would announce it immediately
after Senate resumption, after which others will
follow.
"To be candid, we are 17 senators that will dump
PDP to APC in the Senate very soon. This is a
serious matter and not a joke, making me to lead
the way by joining the APC already."
He defended their planned action, saying the crisis
that engulfed the PDP, leading to its
factionalisation called for it.
Senator Jibrilla boasted that the PDP would suffer
for the maltreatment it gave to the governor of
Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, and other
governors that defected from the party in
December last year.
"The same thing that forced our governors out is
what will force us, the affected federal lawmakers
out of the party. In the case of Adamawa, the
elderly man (Governor Nyako) brought three
senators and six House of Representatives to PDP
as one of its leading lights but was maltreated and
forced out"
Although, he did not give names of the 16 other
defecting senators, Vanguard gathered that the
affected senators are Bukola Saraki and Shaaba
Lafiagi from Kwara State, Magnus Abe and Wilson
Ake from Rivers State, and Basheer Mohammed
and Hayatu Gwarzo from Kano State.
Others are Umar Abubakar Tutare and Aisha
Jummai Alhassan from Taraba State, Senator
Danjuma Goje from Gombe central, Adamu
Abdullahi from Nasarawa West and the entire
three PDP senators from Sokoto state.
Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, however countered his assertion in
an interview where he said the PDP was bent on
defending its majority in the Senate and winning
back what it lost in the House of Representatives.
"We have seen some of these movements before,
we are not worried. In the Senate, for instance,
I'm not expecting that anybody will leave PDP in
the Senate; it is unlikely. Senate is well
coordinated and we are strongly behind PDP in the
Senate."

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