Ekweremadu Cannot Be Removed, PDP Dares APC Senators

The APC senators had made the statement after they had seamlessly removed the Senate Majority Leader, Ali Ndume, and replaced him with Ahmed Lawan.

But the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP asked Ekweremadu, to ignore the statement made by the ruling party, stating that no one can remove him.

The APC senators had asked Ekweremadu to defect from the PDP to the ruling party so that he could continue to have their support.

Senator Kabiru Marafa of the APC had said, “I am using this medium to call on Ekweremadu to simply defect. Section 68(G) of the 1999 Constitution captures this.”

But the spokesperson for the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, said it was wrong for the APC to have called on Ekweremadu on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday to defect from the PDP to the ruling APC.

He said, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to Senator Kabiru Marafa on the floor of the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, January 11, 2017, in which he advised Senator Ike Ekweremadu to defect to the APC in order to remain as the Deputy Senate President.

“This call is unconstitutional, undemocratic and, to say the least, unbecoming of Senator Marafa.”

Adeyeye, however, added that there was no section of the constitution that stipulated that one must belong to the ruling party to hold an elective office in either the Senate or the House of Representatives.

“There is no section or clause of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended) that provides that one must be a member of the ruling party before he/she can be elected into any position in the Senate or the House of Representatives.

“Equally, it is very distasteful and uncharitable for any senator to stand on the floor of the hallowed chamber and ask his colleague to violate the constitution by cross-carpeting from his own party to join the ruling party.

He said, “It is indeed laughable for Senator Marafa to cite the internal issues in the PDP as a reason for Senator Ekweremadu to defect.

“For the umpteenth time, let us reiterate that there is no faction in the PDP.

“A party is only factionalised when its organs are in disarray but this is different from what we have in the PDP where all the organs are intact behind the National Caretaker Committee under the chairmanship of Makarfi.

“A mere rebellion by a small interest group within the party cannot be referred to as factionalisation of the party.”