Date: 2014-04-07

Senate President David Mark is under immense pressure from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senate caucus to read the letter from the 12 defected senators.

With the new plot, should Mark read the letter, the next step would be to deny the 12 senators entry into the chamber until the matter is resolved at the court.

Twelve lawmakers of the Upper Chamber led by Senator Bukola Saraki, defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) last year and subsequently announced same on the floor of the Senate.

But Mark ruled them out of order and has since refused to read the defection letter, citing legal hurdles.

Although the Senate President had consistently maintained that, as the presiding officer, he would wait till the judicial process on the matter is resolved, there’s renewed pressure to take a stand on the defectors.

Renewed clamour for Mark to read the letter was against the backdrop of the ruling from the Federal High Court in Abuja on the case by the 37 members of the House of Representatives that there’s no crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A move was made at last Tuesday’s plenary to test the waters in the chamber when Mark was reading executive communication from President Goodluck Jonathan, Senators Smart Adeyemi and Ayogu Eze requested that the defection letter of the senators, too, should be read.

Some PDP senators quickly supported the request and urged him “to read the letter”, but Mark ignored it and insisted that the earlier ruling on the matter subsists.

A source privy to the arrangement told Daily Sun yesterday that although the matter was waved off “as a joke, the PDP caucus is actually serious about the matter and were just testing the waters as well as passing a message to the opposition that should the awaited court ruling go against them, they will have to vacate their seats…”

Besides, there’s another pressure on the selection committee, headed by Mark, to reshuffle the committees. The argument, was that “since the committee chairmen have left for the opposition, they cannot continue to enjoy slots that belong to the PDP.”

Meanwhile, Senate will, this week, pass the N4.62 trillion 2014 Appropriation Bill.

The Senator Ahmed Maccido-led Appropriation Committee is expected to submit its report to the Committee of Supply for consideration and passage.