Return Tickets: PDP Senators Set to Battle Jonathan, Muazu

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Politics Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

Ayodele Afolabi, Abuja

This is not the best of time for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the its Senators has showed their anger over alleged denial of an automatic ticket by forcing the Senate to adjourn plenary session within 30 minutes of take off.

The Senators who later went into an emergency caucus meeting over the issue, vowed according to competent sources, to continue boycotting legislative businesses until their grouse is addressed.

The aggrieved senators also threatened to give solidarity to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal who recently dumped the PDP that gave him the ticket for the All Progressives Congress, APC.

According to a senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “We are going to show solidarity with the Speaker of House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal. We will not sit again. There will be no consideration of the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) and there will be no budget.

“We decided to adjourn and do no business and the APC Senators are in solidarity with us. President Goodluck Jonathan has lost the senate, he has left the PDP structures in the hands of the governors, let the governors also do our job. We are going to shut the government.

“Another senator also lamented that even before the ward congresses, for about three months, no allowances had been given to them, which he claimed it was deliberate by the executive to starve them of funds for the ongoing congresses. He said.

“Under this arrangement, if left unchallenged, none of the senators would come back in 2015. We are planning to boycott legislative businesses until further notice”.

The Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba had moved a motion suspending the business of the day immediately after the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary read the letter by President Jonathan for the nomination of Okwu Joseph Nnanna for confirmation as the Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The adjournment was said to allow PDP members to attend emergency caucus meeting where matters arising from the recent PDP ward congresses leading to many of them losing out in their bid to come back would be raised