Automatic Ticket| PDP Senators Vow To Boycott Legislative Duties.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators vented their anger yesterday, forcing the Senate to adjourn plenary session within 30 minutes of resumption in Abuja. The PDP senators, who are apparently the majority in the Upper Legislative Chamber, believed that party hierarchy, backed by the Presidency, was playing politics with their automatic ticket of return. They were said to have insisted that the automatic ticket given to President Goodluck Jonathan should be extended to them and their House of Representatives counterparts. The senators, who later went into an emergency caucus meeting over the issue after the forced adjournment of session, vowed to continue to boycott legislative businesses until their grouse is addressed.

The aggrieved senators also threatened to give solidarity to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, who recently dumped the PDP for the All Progressives Congress, APC. According to a senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “We are going to show solidarity with the Speaker of House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal. We will not sit again. There will be no consideration of the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) and there will be no budget.

“We decided to adjourn and do no business. The APC senators are in solidarity with us. President Goodluck Jonathan has lost the Senate; he has left the PDP structures in the hands of the governors, let the governors also do our job. We are going to shut down the government.” Another senator also lamented that even before the ward congresses, for about three months, no allowances had been given to them, which he claimed was deliberate by the executive to starve them of funds during the congresses.

He said, “Under this current arrangement, if left unchallenged, none of the senators would come back in 2015. We are planning to boycott legislative businesses until further notice.”

The Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, had moved a motion suspending the business of the day immediately after the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary read the letter by President Jonathan for the nomination of Okwu Joseph Nnanna for confirmation as the Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. The adjournment was said to allow PDP members to attend emergency caucus meeting where matters arising from the recent PDP ward congresses leading to many of them losing out in their bid to come back would be raised.

And on Monday night, a meeting of the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)and members of the House of Representatives elected on the party’s platform, was said to have centred on the issue of automatic ticket for the lawmakers. The party has reportedly raised a committee to look at the issue of automatic ticket sought by the House members and other issues pending in the lower chamber of the National Assembly.

Speaking with newsmen shortly after the meeting which ended at 10:17 pm on Monday, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metu, said the issue of automatic ticket was deliberated on, but that they (PDP) will setup a committee to address the issue. Metuh said the defection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, was not discussed. “We discussed matters of mutual interest for the progress of the PDP. We are happy with the commitment of the members of the PDP in the house. But I need to mention that it was not only PDP members that were here. Members of the Labour Party and APGA were here. These are people that are committed to the progress of the country.

“Members will raise issues of automatic ticket, protection and their own interest and the party protecting their own interest. Some of them have raised such issues; people will have to talk about their own interest. They have to talk about how we will help them,” he explained. On Tambuwal, he said: “Our discussion is strictly private. It has to do with the position that we are exchanging in furtherance of the party interest. But I don’t know why you have to think that we had to discuss the matter of the speaker.

“This is not the first time we are having such a meeting. I cannot confirm that we discussed such a matter.” He added that, “Let me tell you strictly. I will never make a comment that is false; instead I will not discuss it. The topical issue about the seat of Tambuwal or when they will reconvene did not come up for discussion at this meeting. “We have raised committees to look at the matter and we will get back to our members. We have (in particular) raised a committee of lawyers to look at what we have discussed.”

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