Ike Ekweremadu, a member of opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who was elected Deputy Senate President on Tuesday, June 9, may be forced resign by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He was made the second in command by the loyalists of Senate President Bukola Saraki, who has since his election caught the ire of APC leaders for daring to ignore directive that Senator Ahmed Lawan should head the Upper Chamber.
To circumvent the position of his party, Saraki needed the support of PDP senators who jumped at the proposal to pick Ekweremadu in order to “teach the APC some lesson in politics.”
But the APC leadership is said to be plotting how to frustrate Ekweremadu as a pre-condition for allowing Saraki to continue as helmsman.
The party has held meetings with factions in the Senate, and in the House Representatives, where Yakubu Dogara was elected Speaker in defiance of APC grandees who prefer Femi Gbajabiamila.
It was learnt that the meetings afforded party leaders the opportunity to disclose to the lawmakers what the APC plans to do to reverse what many APC members regard as a major setback for the party in the National Assembly (NASS).
APC discovers breach in Ekweremadu’s election
A source disclosed that the party has discovered a breach in the election of Ekweremadu and is insisting that he must be pushed out.
To stave off the demand, Ekweremadu is alleged to be preparing to defect to the APC. Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) National President, Sani Zoro, said Ekweremadu may be forced to defect to the APC to save his job.
Ekweremadu, who has been Deputy Senator President for two previous terms, reportedly initiated a dialogue with Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, on how to join the ACP immediately it became clear that the PDP had lost control of the centre.
But Ekweremadu has maintained that he will remain in the PDP.
Okorocha has continued to demand for the position of a principal officer of the NASS for the South East. Ekweremadu may be his joker.
Lawmakers who had threatened legal action to resolve the crisis in the leadership tussle in the Senate have been advised to tarry while the APC leadership finds a solution.
Part of the solution, it was learnt, may include sanctioning Saraki whose action is seen as an affront to the party.
Saraki was said to have scheduled to visit APC national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, June 11, the same day the leadership of APC met with his foes, but his visit was put in abeyance.
His foot soldiers who were sent in advance got a shocker when they learnt that the national executive headed by John Odigie-Oyegun would not grant his audience.
Gbajabiamila accepts Dogara’s leadership
The APC does not seem to be too angry with its members in the House because their election of Dogara followed due process, unlike what transpired in the Senate.
Gbajabiamila, leader of the group that lost out in the House, a Tinubu protegee, told reporters at the party secretariat that “we came to meet with the party.
“We just had an election in the House so we came to meet with the party regarding the outcome of the election and the party is going to remain strong and united so that we can deliver the deliverables and the programmes of the party through the House.”
On whether he will challenge the election in court, he said: “I don’t know about the Senate, I only know about the House.
“Nothing happened in the House, we had an election, it’s different from the Senate where people were deprived of their fundamental right to express themselves and vote. But we had an election in the House.
He pledged to “work with the leadership of the House and with [Dogara] for as long as the party’s programmes are properly articulated and pursued on the floor of the House. He’s an APC member, he’s not the speaker of the APC but the speaker of the whole House so we will work with him.”
Gbajabiamila explained that disciplinary action planned by the APC “is the prerogative of the party. All I know is that in every association there must be discipline and whatever the party decides to do that’s for the party, it’s not for me to speak about.”
