Saraki and others still in limbo, as Mark rules defecting senators out of order

Source: pointblanknews.com

The hope of Senator Bukola Saraki and 10 other Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) senators to defect  to the All Progressives Congress(APC),  again failed on Tuesday.

 
At the resumption of plenary of the Senate on Tuesday in Abuja, Senate President David Mark, who has been accused of stalling the reading of the letters of defection of the 11 aggrieved lawmakers, ruled the legislators out of order.

 
There was mild drama when  the minority leader, George Akume engaged the Senate President, David Mark in a back and forth, as Akume tried to convince Mark, the court order had no bearing on the need to read the letter of defection.

 
The absence of Senate President David Mark  from last  Thursday's Senate plenary, stalled the defection of  11 aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party senators to the All Progressives Congress.

The aggrieved senators had written to Mark informing him about their decision to leave the PDP for the APC.

But during last  Wednesday's plenary, neither the Senate President nor the 11 senators made reference to the letter, which  ought to have been read  on the floor of the Senate.

But during plenary on Thursday, the  Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over session, did not  read the  letter.

He said Mark had told him that he had scheduled a meeting with the aggrieved senators whenever he returned from his official trip to Jigawa State.

However, the APC said this development was a pointer to the fact that the Senate leadership wanted to stall the defection. This attempt, the APC said, would fail.