The Senate leadership Tuesday refused to read the letter of the defecting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members at plenary against expectation.
On January 29, 11 members of the PDP in the Senate had written to Senate President David Mark, that they had defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, it was gathered that the refusal of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekwerenmadu who presided over the plenary to read the letter had nothing to do with the absence of Senate President David Mark.
Mark, who was absent at Tuesday plenary was attending the National Council of State meeting at the State House.
It was gathered that the 11 defecting Senators had been advised by the Senate President to write the defection letter individually and not collectively.
Prompt News also learnt that the angry Senators turned down Mark’s invitation to discuss the letter on Monday.
A source at the Red Chamber recalled that when Ajayi Borofice, defected to the Labour Party, he wrote as an individual, saying joint letter would not be entertained from the 11 PDP Senators.
Reacting, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, insisted Senate President Mark has no reason not to read the letter.
He posited that Mark cannot hide under any court order, explaining that”What this order means is that neither the President of the Senate nor the Speaker of the House can declare vacant the seats of the defecting lawmakers. It does not mean the letter of notification from defecting members cannot be read on the floor of the chambers”.
Mohammed spoke further, ”We are not asking that the issue of the defection should be discussed or debated on the floor of the Senate. All we are saying is that the Senate President should read the letter of notification.
”The act of defection by the 11 Senators took place the moment they handed their letter to the Senate President at 10 am on the morning of Wednesday 29th of January 2014 whether or not the Senate President goes ahead to read the letter”.
