APC & PDP Senators fight To take over Senate President Seat

It is getting clear to Bukula Saraki and some of his supporters that he could be jailed by the Code of Conduct Tribunal and consequently vacate the seat of senate president which he snatched from APC. He was not the party's preferred candidate for the position, following an in-house election.

Fresh indications have emerged that PDP members in the Senate have perfected strategies to produce the new Senate President if Saraki is removed as a result of his corruption trial at the CCT.

But APC senators have vowed to resist any attempt by PDP to take over the red chamber from them.

According to Punch, the PDP senators met for hours on Monday night to take a final decision on the issue.

It was not clear if the current Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, would be allowed to take over the top Senate seat by his PDP members.

A source claimed that some people were of the opinion that Ekweremadu should resign with Saraki as a sacrifice while an APC senator from the North-Central would emerge as deputy to a PDP senator.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaboshi, boasted that the PDP would produce the next Senate President.

He said, “Should the incumbent, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, is forced to vacate the office, we have perfected necessary arrangements to take over the upper chamber.

“Well, I wish the APC the best of luck if they are on a wild goose chase. But I want you to mark what I am saying. I was the first to address the press in Port Harcourt and I told them that Saraki was going to win the Senate Presidency and I gave them my reasons.

“Then, nobody ever thought that Saraki was going to win. People were saying that APC had decided. But it was clear to me that he was going to win and I had to address the press. Eventually, we went there, he won. If, but God forbids, because we don’t see it coming, by chance, Saraki is removed, I can tell you that the PDP will produce the next Senate President.”

Speaking on how the PDP intends to get the support of other lawmakers to produce the next Senate President, Nwaoboshi said, “We only need three (APC senators) and we have them.”

But senators elected on the platform of the APC, are not taking the plot of their PDP colleagues lightly as they held a meeting in the house of ex-Sokoto State Governor, Senator Aliyu Wammako, in Abuja.

APC senators at the meeting were more concerned about the embarrassment disunity was causing the ruling party in the Senate. According to sources close to the meeting, the lawmakers wanted a situation in which the interests of government would be promoted at all times in the Senate.

The meeting was said to have resolved to work in the interest of APC in all matters.