APC Senators Demand Ekweremadu’s Resignation as DSP

The crisis set off by the recent election of the principal officers of the National Assembly may be far from over despite the All Progressives Congress’ recent assurance that it is putting its house in order.

Aggrieved APC senators has demanded for the immediate resignation of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who is member of the PDP and has no business in the Senate leadership.

“We demand that Senator Ike Ekweremadu must resign his position because he needed at least 55 senators to emerge as deputy senate president. Ekweremadu is a lawyer and an experienced lawmaker. He knows he is not qualified to win the election with 54 votes.”

The senators, who are loyal to Senator Ahmad Lawan, the party’s candidate for the Senate presidency, insisted that Ekweremadu’s resignation was one of the conditions that would make the faction to recognise Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate.

The aggrieved lawmakers, under the auspices of the Senate Unity Forum, however, stated that they had nothing personal against Saraki and Ekweremadu.

APC senators had been divided since the controversial elections. Saraki and Yakubu Dogara had defied the ruling party, allied with PDP and emerged as the heads of the upper and lower chambers.

The alliance led to the return of Ekweremadu, a member of the PDP, as the Deputy Senate President.

Initially, the APC had rejected the result of the election, insisting that Saraki, Dogara and their supporters would be sanctioned for defying the position of the party. But a few days later, the National Chairman of the the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said the party had accepted Saraki as the President of the Senate. “Of course, he (Sakari) has been duly elected by his colleagues. We have a reality and we must live with it,” he said.

However, the spokesperson of the SUF, Senator Kabir Marafa, who spoke to PUNCH, said the pro-Saraki senators must explain why they disregarded all the arrangements put in place by the leaders of the APC to produce consensus candidates for post of Senate President and Deputy Senate President.

The senator called for thorough investigations into why the Clerk of the National Assembly was in a hurry to conduct the election of the senate president and the deputy without following the normal procedure as contained in the Senate Standing Order.

Marafa further said the pro-Saraki lawmakers should tell the party leadership why they rushed to the chamber on June 9 and hurriedly conducted the election, while the rest of the APC lawmakers were at the ICC, expecting the arrival of President Mohammadu Buhari.

Another APD man said, “The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, was not properly elected. He requires a simple majority vote of 55 to win the election but he got 54, so he did not win and we cannot recognise him. We refuse to. Our party has asked us not to talk to the press but we will not keep quiet internally.

“Apart from Ekeweremadu resigning, we are also demanding thorough investigations into the decision of the Clerk of the National Assembly to conduct the election when he was aware that the President had summoned us to a meeting.”