The pro-Kawu Baraje Senators otherwise known as G25 in the Senate may be spoiling for another show down with the Bamanga Tukur loyalists as the ‘rebel’ lawmakers vowed to stop the planned confirmation of President Goodluck Jonathan nominees for Federal Character Commission job as well as the yet-to-be submitted Ministerial list.

The ‘rebel’ senators allegedly working with All Progressives Congress (APC) are alleged to have also perfected plot to visit similar anger on the yet to be presented ministerial nominees.

“We will make sure the Senate does not get the required two third majority to consider any nominee of the president presented to the Senate for confirmation,” one of the Baraje Senators vowed.

Already, the arrowhead in the planned offensive, former governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki, had written to the Senate President, Senator David Mark, insisting that the nominee from his state, Prof. Shuaibu Abdulraheem, does not enjoy the support of two senators from the state as provided in the standing rule of the Senate for confirmation. 

Daily Champion gathered that the Kwara State nominee enjoys the support of only senator, Simeon Ajibola, out of the three senators from the state. 

Senator Ajibola is the only Senator from Kawara State that belongs to the Bamanga Tukur faction of the PDP. Senator Saraki, Governor Ahmed Fatai of Kwara and other members of the pro-Baraje group in the state are alleged to be opposed to the nomination of Prof. Abdulhareem as commissioner representing the state in the Federal Character Commission for his alleged refusal to declare support for the new PDP. The former governor who was earlier reported to be jostling for Mark’s job was alleged to have asked for a replacement of the state nominee in the Federal Character commission. The former governor was alleged to have also advised the Senate committee on Federal Character to stop the screening of the nominee. 

But a member of the pro -Tukur group in the Senate who would not want his name in print told Daily Champion at the weekend that the leadership of the Senate was already in the know of the plot. The Tukur group maybe working on a counter offensive next week when the report of the Senate committee on Federal Character which screened the nominee is expected to be considered by the Senate.    

Sources alleged that the nominee may become another victim of the current implosion in PDP. He however, said that PDP senators would not allow the G25 to have their way. According to him, the Senate may settle for a division to decide the fate of the nominee and ‘if we do that, there is no way we cannot confirm the nominee’. He said that the PDP senators have uncovered plot by the ‘rebel’ senators to destabilize the Senate in the battle for the soul of the ruling party.

According to him, the group has even planned to frustrate every other confirmation of nominees of the president on the floor of the Senate. 

Daily Champion recalls that the relative peace in the Senate was jolted last week as the aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) clashed with the Bamanga Tukur loyalists over the control of the soul of the ruling party in the Senate.

Prompt intervention of the Senate President, Senator David Mark, who insisted that there cannot be two PDP in the Senate, stopped the drama from degenerating into a rowdy session. Trouble started during a debate on motion on the late former governor of Ondo State, OlusegunAgagu, when the former governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje referred himself as a member of the new and authentic PDP. Goje’s claim pitched the two sides into a shouting match on the floor of the Senate. 

 But citing order 52 of the Senate rule, Senator Smart Adeyemi described the claim by Goje as unconstitutional since according to him Goje has not decamped to any other party. Adeyemi asked the Senate President to prevail on the former governor to withdraw his claim about new PDP, insisting that such remark was not only derogatory to the party but a personal insult to himself as a member.