There was uproar at the Senate on Thursday following the refusal of Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to read at the floor of the Senate, the letter of 11 senators who wrote on Wednesday to inform the upper chamber of their decampment from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Presiding over the chamber in the absence of Senate President, David Mark who himself failed to read the letter on Wednesday, Ekweremadu stood against the request of the 11 senators for their letter to be read, consequently holding up proceedings for more than 30 minutes while APC senators held their ground.
The APC lawmakers were hell bent on the reading of the letter titled ‘Notification of Change of Political Party’, but PDP senators countered, encouraging Ekweremadu not to read it.
An angry Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central), who is one of the 11 senators, then raised a Point of Order to enforce the reading of the letter.
“The was given to the senate president on Wednesday, as a notification of change of political party by myself and 10 other senators from the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). So I felt that it was necessary for me to bring to your attention that the letter has not yet been read”.
Ekweremadu responded by saying the senate president travelled, although before he left, he indeed mentioned a conversation with Saraki, the contents of which were to be further discussed at a meeting on Monday.
But Saraki would have none of it, saying: “That is not the case, sir. I submitted the letter yesterday [Wednesday] and he [Mark] indicated the intention that he would like to meet with senators. The two issues — submitting the letter and his request for the meeting — do not seem that the meeting was subject to the bringing of the letter. The two are two separate issues.”
But Ekweremadu insisted, saying his conviction was that a meeting was still to hold; and since Mark was unavailable to change that conviction, any decision on the matter would have to wait for his arrival.
“He is not here”, Ekweremadu said, “So I believe that we would stand down any issue relating to that until he comes back”.
