For the second time 11 senators seeking to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) whose letters were sent to Senate President David Mark on January 29 were disappointed as he said his hands were tied by the Senate Standing Rules.
“Order 53 (5) of the Senate Standing Rules states that “reference shall not be made to any matter on which a judicial decision is pending in such a way as might in the opinion of the president of the senate prejudice the interest of parties thereto.”
The defecting senators are BukolaSaraki (Kwara Central), AdamuAbdullahiAdamu (Nasarawa West), UmaruDahiru (Sokoto South), DanjumaGoje (Gombe Central), Shaba Lafiagi (Kwara North), Aisha Alhassan (Taraba North) and Magnus Abe (Rivers South-east).Others are Ali Ndume (Borno South), BindowoJubrilla (Adamawa North), Wilson Ake (Rivers West) and IbrahimGobir (Sokoto East).
The defection of the senators and some members of the House of Representatives also came up yesterday at the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, where at last, a lawyer, Alex Marama, announced appearance for House Speaker, Hon. AminuTambuwal.
The defecting senators and their APC counterparts have been routing for the reading of the letter by Mark since last week when it was submitted.
The agitation has forced the Senate into 2 Executive sessions within 2 days.
It is being suggested that a pending court case may have tied the hands of the Senate President who does not want to act in contempt of the courts. It may also not be unlikely that the PDP and David Mark may be seeking a political solution to the crisis that led to the defections in the first place.
At a briefing of reporters after yesterday’s closed-door session, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Senator EnyinnayaAbaribe, said the parliament resolved to seek legal advice in relation to the provisions on defection in the 1999 Constitution as well as the Standing Rules.
He also added that the resolve was compelling because the Senate observed that both the defecting senators and Mark needed more time for consultation as he argued that why issues evolving on the matter could be variously interpreted, the case of the Senate Standing Rules differs because it is only subject to the Senate President’s interpretation.
Abaribe said previou defections which did not generate any problems were different because there was no case in court militating against such defections, explaining that Saraki and others compounded their case by going to court. He noted that this current instance was compounded by a court order asking the senate president and other stakeholders to maintain the status quo, noting that status quo in this matter implies that there should be no action whatsoever until the matter in court is dispensed with.
Abaribe concluded that: “In the past, defected senators did not go to court against the principal officers of the Senate. The matter has to be suspended until court issues are resolved. But discussion was fruitful. Everybody saw the issue from another person’s point of view.”Under Order 25, only the senate president can interpret the rules. We are lawmakers and can’t be lawbreakers. You can’t go to court and be unable to wait for the ruling.”
Surely, APC would not find this funny.
