Jonathan Has No Powers To Give Us Automatic Ticket - PDP Senators

Source: EMMA UCHE - thewillnigeria.com
PHOTO: SENATOR AYOGU EZE.
PHOTO: SENATOR AYOGU EZE.

ABUJA, Dec 01, (THEWILL) - Senate today declared that President Goodluck Jonathan has no statutory powers to grant Senators particularly members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) automatic ticket to contest the 2011 general elections as erroneously being speculated.


Senate spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze, disclosed this at a press conference at the end of plenary session against the backdrop of questions as to what actually transpired at the meeting between the Senate caucus and President Jonathan on Tuesday night.


“He is not in a position to give us automatic ticket, he is not from my constituency. My return here is a function of my performance if those I represent believe in me. Because the delegates that will elect me in my senatorial constituency are not from Bayelsa and they are not in Abuja here. So the President cannot promise you automatic ticket because it is not within his purview to do so,” he said. He further explained that President Jonathan at the meeting held on Tuesday with the PDP Senators came to formally ask for support from the lawmakers at the party primary for the 2011 general election. “The meeting had to do with the delegate elections and you know that senators are statutory delegates and it’s proper that he speaks to us. Some did ask me whether the issue of Electoral Act was discussed and I told them point blank that it was not. I want to put it on record that this President has continued in the same tradition of non-interference in the affairs of the National Assembly as we witnessed in the era of Yar’Adua.


“I think that is how it suppose to be. He respects our independence, he has respect for the separation of powers and I want to commend the President publicly on behalf of the Senate that we are impressed with the level of encouragement he gave to the National Assembly and the fact that he doesn’t interfere with the affairs of the National Assembly.


“Because an overbearing President would have wanted to know what we are doing with Electoral Act, he would have wanted to know what the debate between us and the Central Bank is. I think it’s a commendable quality,” he stated.