Senate President abscence stalls defection of 11 Senators

The absence of Senate President David Mark  from Thursday’s Senate plenary, stalled the defection of  11 aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party senators to the All Progressives Congress.

The aggrieved senators had written to Mark informing him about their decision to leave the PDP for the APC.

But during Wednesday’s plenary, neither the Senate President nor the 11 senators made reference to the letter, which  ought to have been read  on the floor of the Senate.

But during plenary on Thursday, the  Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over session, did not  read the  letter.

He said Mark had told him that he had scheduled a meeting with the aggrieved senators whenever he returned from his official trip to Jigawa State.

However, the APC said this development was a pointer to the fact that the Senate leadership wanted to stall the defection. This attempt, the APC said, would fail.

Interim National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents.

Mohammed said, “Even though the Deputy Senate President was there, they refused to read the letter. It is one of two things; it is either they are trying to go to court or they are trying to woo these people back. Either way, they are going to fail.”