Date: 2014-02-06

Hopes that Senate President David Mark would read the defection letter addressed to him by 11 senators seeking to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on January 29, dimmed yesterday as he said his hands were tied by the Senate Standing Rules.

THISDAY had exclusively reported Wednesday that the senate leadership had no intention of reading the letter in view of the order restraining the chamber from acting on any issue that is sub judice.

Order 53 (5) of the Senate Standing Rules states that "reference shall not be made to any matter on which a judicial decision is pending in such a way as might in the opinion of the president of the senate prejudice the interest of parties thereto."

The defecting senators are Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central), Adamu Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West), Umaru Dahiru (Sokoto South), Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), Shaba Lafiagi (Kwara North), Aisha Alhassan (Taraba North) and Magnus Abe (Rivers South-east).

Others are Ali Ndume (Borno South), Bindowo Jubrilla (Adamawa North), Wilson Ake (Rivers West) and Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East). The defection of the senators and some members of the House of Representatives also came up yesterday at the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, where at last, a lawyer, Alex Marama, announced appearance for House Speaker, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal.

The defecting senators in collaboration with their APC counterparts have been demanding that the letter be read by Mark since last week when it was submitted. This agitation forced the Senate into an executive session presided over by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu on Tuesday.

The session resolved that the aggrieved senators should meet with Mark in his Apo residence on Tuesday night. They consented.

However, because the Apo meeting was inconclusive, the Senate opted to hold another executive session yesterday where Mark told them that he could not read the letter because he was handicapped by Section 53 (5) of Senate Standing Rules, which he said restrained him from acting on any issue that is pending in a law court.

He also harped on a court order asking parties to the suit to maintain the status quo until its final determination.

But this position did not go down well with the aggrieved senators as well as members of APC caucus who described the issues as two matters that were not related.

After the session, both the aggrieved senators and their APC counterparts wore long faces as they converged on the lobby of the National Assembly, prepared to express their anger on the matter through a press conference. But they later agreed to exercise restraint by calling off the briefing.

Briefing reporters however after yesterday's closed-door session, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the parliament resolved to seek legal advice in relation to the provisions on defection in the 1999 Constitution as well as the Standing Rules.

He also added that the resolve was compelling because the senate observed that both the defecting senators and Mark needed more time for consultation as he argued that why issues evolving on the matter could be variously interpreted, the case of the Senate Standing Rules differs because it is only subject to the senate president's interpretation.

Asked why the provisions in the Standing Rules were not cited as the basis to stop senators who had previously defected to other parties, Abaribe said there was no case in court militating against such defections, explaining that Saraki and others compounded their case by going to court.

He also added that this current instance was compounded by a court order asking the senate president and other stakeholders to maintain the status quo, noting that status quo in this matter implies that there should be no action whatsoever until the matter in court is dispensed with.

He said: "In the past, defected senators did not go to court against the principal officers of the senate. The matter has to be suspended until court issues are resolved. But discussion was fruitful. Everybody saw the issue from another person's point of view.

"Under Order 25, only the senate president can interpret the rules. We are lawmakers and can't be lawbreakers. You can't go to court and be unable to wait for the ruling."

But two other senators, who separately spoke with THISDAY on the executive session, said Abaribe "was being economical with the truth," by his submission that the meeting resolved that legal consultations should be sought in the effort to resolve the crisis.

According to one of the senators, the only major resolution was that the closed-door session should be held every Tuesday in the continuous effort to tackle the matter.

He also said another issue canvassed at the meeting was the suggestion that each of the defecting senators should submit his/her defection letter as against the joint letter earlier submitted to Mark.

He however said Mark who initially seemed prepared to accept the defection letters individually was no longer keen to do so as he regretted that non-PDP senators had at various times in the past defected without anyone citing the law to stop them.

"People who were not members of PDP had defected in senate before and nobody said their letters should not be read because there was a case in court. We told them that the case in court had nothing to do with the letter but was only meant to restrain them from declaring their seats vacant. But they said if there was no defection, there would have been no need to declare seats vacant.

"It was canvassed over and over that the senate president should allow everyone to write his defection letter individually. But he was no longer interested. He didn't feel good about it. But it was not part of our resolve that both sides should go and seek legal advice. It was the senate president who made that submission that he would make consultations over the matter," he said. When asked the next step they would take as a result of the senate president's unpreparedness to read their letter, he said: "They don't announce steps to take on such issues ahead. You wait till next week and see."

Also speaking on the matter, Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume, and Senator Gbenga Obadara (Ogun West) confirmed that there was no resolve to seek a legal opinion on the issue.

According to them, the APC caucus only advocated the need to find political solution to the matter as they expressed hopes that the matter would be resolved next week.

However, the senate at plenary yesterday summoned the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, to appear before it next Tuesday to brief senators on the reasons for the lingering crisis in Rivers State.

The IG's summon followed senate resolution of January 22 in the aftermath of a motion moved by Senator Wilson Ake (Rivers East), decrying the alleged threats constituted by men of Rivers State Police Command to peace and progress in the state.

Also yesterday, the senate adjourned sitting until next Tuesday to enable members of APC participate in the ongoing party registration.

Meanwhile, a lawyer, Marama, has announced appearance for Tambuwal in the suit filed by 79 members of the National Assembly seeking to stop it from declaring their seats vacant after they defected from PDP to APC.

Parties in the suit filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, are 57 House members and 22 senators who had by way of originating summon dated September 11, 2013 approached the court for an order restraining Alhaji Bamanga Tukur (first defendant), the senate president (second defendant), Speaker, House of Representatives (third defendant) and the PDP (fourth defendant) from declaring their seats vacant in the event of their defection to the APC.

But since the legal battle began, the non-appearance of Tambuwal or his legal representatives had delayed proceedings in the matter as counsel to the plaintiffs and those of the defendants had complained of their inability to effect service of court processes on the speaker.

However, it took the intervention of Justice Ahmed Mohammed who ordered the court's bailiff at the last adjournment, to effect service of the court processes on the speaker.

Justice Mohammed had directed that such papers should be served on the speaker on or before January 31.

At the resumed hearing yesterday, Marama announced appearance for the speaker and apologised to the court, explaining that the dispute over who should represent the speaker was the reason why no lawyer had come to represent him in court.

He said: "We had issues but they have been resolved amicably. Even though, we have not been able to appear in court, we have filed our memoranda of appearance within time and will be making an oral application for a short time to enable us file and serve counsel in the matter all the necessary processes."

Justice Mohammed ordered that all processes should be filed and served on counsel in the matter on or before 12 noon, February 17 and adjourned hearing of the suit until February 18.

Former PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, also decried the lukewarm attitude of the senate leadership over the defection of the 11 senators. He told reporters in Ilorin yesterday that no matter the injustice being done to the senators, they would not return to the PDP.

He said: "I was in PDP and I know how many senators we received from other political parties when I was there. There was no hue and cry. Now when senators want to defect from PDP to APC the whole roof is blown off. Where is the justice? Where is rule of law and order? Where is procedure? That is why civil organisations are supporting those senators."