Senate Principal Officers Tears PDP Apart

Ilesanmi AdekanbiJune 26, 2019

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The plot by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to tinker with the list of selected principal officers of the party in the Senate is brewing bad blood.

There were unconfirmed reports on Tuesday that the NWC of the PDP had concluded arrangements to alter the list of selected minority leadership in the upper chamber.

It was reliably learnt that the party planned to drop the Senator representing Edo Central, Clifford Ordia, from the list slated to be announced on Tuesday next week.

The PDP NWC named Ordia as its Deputy Minority Whip in the Senate at a meeting held in the house of the party’s national chairman, Uche Secondus last week.

If the plot succeeds, Ordia is likely to be replaced by Senator Sahabi Yau from Zamfara State.

At the same meeting, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, (Abia South), was named the party’s Senate minority leader.

Senators Emmanuel Bwacha, (Taraba South), was selected as deputy minority leader while Senator Philip Aduda, (Federal Capital Territory) was chosen as the minority whip.

Some PDP senators from the South-South have vowed to resist any move to drop Ordia.

The Senators are insisting that the party must not impose any principal officer on them without due consultation.

One of the aggrieved senators who spoke to reporters in Abuja, said an election was conducted at a meeting held at the Abuja residence of the national chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus on the 14th of June.

He noted that nominations were made in the presence of party leaders and PDP senators and winners emerged.

He said that those who emerged were unanimously backed by the various organs of the party.

He added that the plan to alter the list and drop some names, does not have the backing of the caucus of the party.

He insisted that no one has been consulted or any meeting held with PDP senators to agree on the need to alter the list.

The Senator who does not want to be named accused some governors of mounting pressure on the leadership of the PDP to ensure that their interest is represented in the Senate.

He said, “Under the rules of the Senate, it is not the responsibility of the National Working Committee to select principal officials.

“It is the responsibility of the senators themselves to select who leads them. The minority senators have freely elected those they want and nothing will change it.

“The argument that they want to represent every part of the country is false. There are eight positions open to the PDP in the two chambers of the National Assembly. Even if you share one to each geopolitical zone, two will still get an extra slot.

“Those we selected are known to us. They are the people we can work with. Some governors causing this division don’t know how the parliament operates. They want to control everything in the party for their selfish interest.

“Maybe the NWC has not learnt its lessons. The APC tried this imposition in the eight Senate and they paid for it dearly. It is up to the PDP to allow us to have our way or allow strangers to destroy its fold in the Senate.”