Efforts by Senate President David Mark to pacify 11 senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who last week wrote to inform him of their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), fell through yesterday as they shunned a meeting with the Senate leadership.

The defecting senators, including Bukola Saraki, Danjuma Goje, Shaba Lafiagi and Magnus Abe did not turn up for the meeting slated for Mark's office.

Besides Saraki, Goje, Lafiagi and Abe, other defecting senators are Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West), Umaru Dahiru (Sokoto South), Aisha Alhassan (Taraba North), Ali Ndume (Borno South), Bindowo Jubrilla (Adamawa North), Wilson Ake (Rivers West) and Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East).

Mark, who had arrived in his office at 10 am in preparation for the meeting, left at 2 pm when he did not see any of the senators who are aggrieved over the refusal of the Senate leadership to read their defection letter, as they had expected, during last Wednesday's plenary.
Notwithstanding the attempts by the Senate leadership to discourage their defection to APC, the party’s membership increased yesterday as 26 lawmakers in Kano State House of Assembly announced that they had left PDP for the opposition party.

Their defection came two days before the official launch of the party's membership drive in which it hopes to recruit 15 million Nigerians nationwide into its fold.
The aggrieved senators during last Wednesday's plenary had submitted their defection letter to Mark to inform him of their preparedness to join APC.

The letter, which was signed by the 11 senators, was submitted by Saraki.
When the letter was not read last Wednesday as expected by the defecting senators, they assumed it was due to its late submission since it was submitted after the time that the Senate president usually reads correspondence.

Although the defection letter contained 16 names, only 11 of them signed, as the remaining five backed out and decided to remain in PDP.

Following the submission of the letter, Mark had a discussion with Saraki where he disclosed his intention to meet with them. Consequently, they agreed to schedule the meeting for Monday.

But Mark, after a four-hour fruitless wait for the defecting senators to keep the appointment, left at 2 pm and returned home.

But THISDAY learnt that the meeting, which was initially rescheduled for yesterday night at the Apo official quarters of Mark, was again postponed to take place today.

THISDAY was reliably informed that the senate president had called the meeting to explain to the aggrieved senators why he would be unable to read the defection letter for now.

According to a source, Mark is conscious that once the letter is read, it will immediately be documented since it will enter the Senate's Hansard.

The source added that the senate president knows that once the defection letter is recorded as part of the day's proceedings, it would endanger the seats of the defectors anytime the court rules on a suit challenging the legality of the defected lawmakers retaining their seats.

The source explained that the senate president believes that the court ruling would not be in the defectors’ interest because of an earlier judgment that there was no division in PDP, which was the main reason cited by the 11 senators’ for their defection.

He added further that the senate president also felt that it would be disastrous for any senator to have his/her seat declared vacant when they have less than one-and-a-half years to the end of their tenure.

The source said another reason Mark called the meeting was to explain to the 11 senators that their letter cannot stand the test of time in view of Order 53 in the Senate Standing Rules, which states that “if in the opinion of the senate president any matter is already in court, it will be considered sub judice and shall not be mentioned on the floor”.

He added that the case of the defecting senators was worsened by their reference to the matter in court in paragraph five of the first letter they wrote to Mark on January 20, where among others, they asked him not to declare their seats vacant because of the court order asking the parties concerned to maintain the status quo.

“The meeting is actually in their own interest because the senate president is saying once the letter is read, it will enter into the Hansard and once the court’s ruling is not in their favour, the only option left will be to declare their seats vacant.

“So the senate president is laying emphasis on the number of days left and informing them that it won't be worth it to declare anybody's seat vacant. Even their letter cannot stand up to the Senate Standing Rules.

“And it is in the Senate Standing Rules that any matter in court cannot be discussed. Yet they were the ones that even made reference to the matter in court in their letter to him; except they are saying that the rules don't matter any more and asking that the rule be changed,” the source said.

Last Thursday, there was tension in the upper legislative chamber when the defecting senators in collaboration with their APC counterparts   protested the perceived deliberate decision of the Senate leadership not to read the letter.

They had demanded that the letter be read by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the plenary on that day. But Ekweremadu insisted that Mark did not give him any letter to read, adding that the senate president had also told him that he had scheduled a meeting with the senators on the matter for yesterday.

This did not go down well with the senators who were dissatisfied with Ekweremadu's explanation. The situation eventually degenerated into a rowdy session before the matter was brought under control.

Meanwhile, ahead of the official commencement of its membership drive tomorrow during which it hopes to recruit 15 million Nigerians at the end of the exercise, 26 out of the 31 lawmakers from the Kano State assembly yesterday announced their defection to APC.

The assembly Speaker, Alhaji Gambo Sallau, and three other members were however absent during the declaration of the lawmakers who elected to cross carpet.
But one of the lawmakers representing Bagwai/Shanono Constituency, Alhaji Lawan Safiyanu Gogori, remained in the PDP.

With the massive defection of the lawmakers, APC now holds the majority in the state legislature.

Six members out of the nine members of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), who were automatically APC members after the merger, remained in the party while the remaining three defected to PDP.

The spokesman of the defectors, Rabiu Saleh Gwarzo, told reporters that they defected to APC because of their conviction that the party had a definite agenda of liberating Nigerians.

According to him, all the 26 members who defected to APC had held wide consultations with their constituencies before arriving at the decision to leave PDP.
He also said another reason they defected to APC was because they were satisfied with the outstanding performance of the state Governor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who had defected to the party last year, in transforming the state.

Some of the members who left PDP for APC were the Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Isyaku Ali Danja; a former Speaker, Yusuf Abdullahi Falgore; Majority Leader, Hamisu Ibrahim; Deputy Majority Leader, Yusuf Babangida Suleiman; and the Chief Whip, Abdullahi Iliyasu  Yunusa.

In its statement on the membership drive, APC expressed optimism yesterday on a hitch-free process, saying the defection of some PDP bigwigs to its fold would make the target realisable.

The party said part of its projections were that some of the political decampees, including former Vice-President Abubakar Atiku, would along with their supporters swell the ranks of APC during the membership registration.

APC's interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told THISDAY in a telephone interview yesterday that the party had deployed all the necessary human and material resources to the 36 states of the federation in order to guarantee the success of the exercise.

“We are expecting to register about 15 million members during this first stage of the membership drive around the country and everything concerning logistics and other preparations are in place,” he said.

Before the consummation of its merger, APC’s main constituent parties, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and ANPP could only boast significant followings in nine states where they were the ruling parties.

While ACN dominated six states of Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, Oyo and Edo, ANPP held sway in Zamfara, Yobe and Borno, while CPC was the ruling party in only Nasarawa State.

THISDAY gathered that from all indications, the leadership of APC has perfected plans to upstage the PDP in some of the states in the north, especially those states whose governors have defected with their followers to APC.

Mohammed said the party expects Atiku and the five governors who joined APC from PDP to mobilise their supporters to register with APC during the membership drive.

When asked whether Atiku's entry would not escalate the crisis of confidence that has pitted the Governor of Adamawa State  Murtala Nyako against former Lagos State military governor, Brig. Gen. Mohammed  Marwa, the APC spokesman said there was no cause for alarm.

“Atiku is welcome to our party and there is no problem in his joining us now. We are just starting registration and we expect that Atiku and his supporters will join in the exercise and then participate in the forthcoming congress.

“I think his coming is at the right time and there is absolutely no problem with his being part of APC,” he added.