The Enugu state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said they do not want the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu in its fold.
This is coming on the heels of Senator Kabir Marafa’s call to Ekweremadu to decamp to APC if he wants to keep his seat.
It will be recalled that the PDP warned the APC that any attempt to remove Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu is a call for anarchy.
The PDP further described the call as unconstitutional, undemocratic, adding that the section of the 1999 Constitution which Marafa quoted as backing his advice to Ekweremadu was untrue.
Mafara was quoting as saying “I am using this medium to call on Ekweremadu to simply decamp. Section 68(G) of the 1999 Constitution captures this.
“There is no section or clause of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) that provides that one must be a member of the ruling party before he could 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.
“It is Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not Senate of the APC,’’ the PDP said.
It added that it was laughable for Marafa to cite the internal issues in the PDP as a reason for Ekweremadu to defect to the APC.
“For the umpteenth time, let us reiterate that there is no faction in the PDP.
“A party is only factionalized when its organs are in disarray, but this is different in the PDP where all the organs are intact, behind the National Caretaker Committee under the chairmanship of Sen. Makarfi.
“A mere rebellion by a small interest group within the party cannot be referred to factionalisation of the party,” the statement said.
It cautioned that any PDP member using the current leadership disagreement caused by the “rebellious group’’ to defect to another party was doing so at his or her peril.
It said that Marafa or any other member of the APC had no power to make such demands on a member of the PDP.
“Let us remind Sen. Marafa that Sen. Ike Ekweremadu was elected as Deputy President of Senate by majority votes from both the PDP and APC senators.
“Any attempt to remove Sen. Ekweramadu for being a member of the opposition party and not because of a constitutional breach or incompetence is a call for anarchy.’’
The PDP recalled that the current situation in the Senate where the Senate President and his deputy were from different parties should not continue to appear strange to anybody in a democratic system.
According to Punch, the Publicity Secretary of the Enugu state APC, Kate Offor said Ekweremadu will be an unwelcome guest in the party.
She also alleged that the Deputy Senate President contributed to the destruction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Offor said “Whatever is the position of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we want him (Ekweremadu) to remain in PDP.
“We wish to make it very clear that Ekweremadu is an unwanted guest in Enugu State APC.
“Let him stay and salvage the inferno festering in the PDP. We don’t want one party state.”