The Peoples Democratic Party has said
the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and their supporters are welcome in the
PDP should they decide to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The opposition party said its doors are open to defectors in the National Assembly.
The APC had chosen Ahmed Lawan and Femi
Gbajabiamila to run for Senate President and Speaker of the House of
Representatives, respectively. Bukola Saraki and Dogara, however, moved
against the party’s decision.
Consequently, there have been fears that the APC might punish the rebel lawmakers.
Speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH on
Saturday, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, PDP, Abdullahi Jalo,
said the party was ready to accept Saraki, Dogara and their supporters
in the National Assembly back to its fold.
Saraki was one of the leaders of a breakaway faction of the PDP known as the New PDP, which later merged with the APC.
Jalo stated that the PDP would continue
to run a party that allows every Nigerian to join it whenever such
individual wanted to. According to him, there is no absolute proviso
preventing defection from one party to another.
He said, “Any politician is entitled to
join any political party that he so desires to join. The PDP is for
everyone. We don’t quarrel with anybody. We are still soliciting for
more acceptability.
“The PDP is open to the Senate
President, Bukola Saraki; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (former Governor of Lagos
State and national leader, APC); Bisi Akande (former Governor of Osun
State and ex-National Chairman, APC, Chief) and any other persons in the
ruling APC.
“The PDP is large enough to accommodate
many people of diverse backgrounds. That is why we remain the largest
party in Africa. We are never going to stop anybody from leaving or
victimise them after they have left.
“The former Speaker, House of
Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal (now Governor of Sokoto State) left and
the party did not sanction him, unlike the APC that is threatening
Saraki with sanctions.”
A source in the PDP, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity, however, told one of our correspondents that
some prominent politicians in the APC had begun talks with the PDP in
view of the 2019 presidential election.
“In the APC, we have people who have
signified their interest in the 2019 presidential election. They will
come when the time is appropriate and we will accommodate them,” the
source said.
A former Minister of Aviation and
Director of Media and Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation,
Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, said he was delighted about Saraki’s senate
presidency, with Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP as his deputy.
“It is evident that the PDP is on the rise again,” he added.
He, said the PDP would love to have the
APC lawmakers, stressing that “politics is a game of number and as far
as I am concerned, PDP’s doors are always wide open for anybody who
wants to come and join. The more the merrier.”
A former Minister of Transport and
member of the PDP’s Board of Trustees, Ebenezer Babatope, also described
Sakari’s emergence as Senate President as a “very good and positive
development” for Nigerian’s democracy.
He pointed out that having an APC
senator as the senate president and PDP as the deputy would strengthen
Nigerian democracy, and remove as parochialism from partisan politics in
the country.
Babatope said, “Don’t forget, we have a
good number in the Senate. PDP senators are 49 out of 109; that is a
very strong number. There is no way APC will not rely on the PDP members
to have effective results in the Senate.
“What happened was that Bukola Saraki
consulted all of them. If Lawan had contested with Bukola Saraki, on the
floor of the Senate, Lawan would have lost because the 49 PDP senators
would have voted for Saraki. Saraki had 57 votes and 49 of them came
from the PDP.”
Source: Punchng
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