I Will Not Quit As Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu Tells Disgruntled APC

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has categorically told a disgruntled All Progressive Congress (APC) that he will not resign from the office despite its insistence that he should quit or be removed.

Ekweremadu who spoke through his media aide, Mr. Ismail Omipidan, made it clear on Sunday that he has no reason to quit as the Deputy Senate President after been duly elected into the office.

He reminded the ruling party that several public office-holders had defected from the PDP to the APC without the latter worrying. And that the APC had produced either the Speaker or Deputy Speaker in some states’ Houses of Assembly where the party was in the minority.

Omipidan said: “The call for Ekweremadu’s resignation also exposes the hypocrisy of some APC stalwarts. You will recall that when Tambuwal defected (from the PDP) to the APC, all the notable leaders of the party, including Lai Mohammed who was the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, stated clearly that there was nowhere in the constitution where it was stated that the Speaker (of the House of Representatives) must be produced by the majority party; that was their argument. (The current Majority Leader of the House) Femi Gbajabiamila also said so.

“What has now changed? The constitution has not been rewritten; it is the same constitution. And it is very clear that ‘the senators shall elect the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President from amongst themselves.’”

Omipidan went down memory lane and pointed out that under the first tenure of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, the ruling APC produced the speaker of the House of Assembly while an opposition party produced the deputy speaker. He also recalled that an opposition APC had produced either speakers or deputy speakers of Benue and Plateau states’ Houses of Assembly.

“Where you don’t have a clear majority, there has to be some alliances to make the legislative work go smoothly. These things happened in the states but they never raised eyebrows then,” he added.

One of the aides of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki told the Punch, on condition of anonymity, that the APC currently lacks the popularity in the Senate to unseat Ekweremadu.

The source said that removing Ekweremadu would be easier for the APC if all its members were united, but they are not, unlike their PDP counterparts who are firmly together.

“Today, the APC has a divided house while the PDP senators – over 40 of them – are all together, working together. It is a more complex issue,” the source said.

The source added that “it takes a simple majority to elect the senate president and the deputy senate president but it will take two-thirds of the senators to remove any of them, which the APC currently lacks.”

Also Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna-Central), told the newspaper on Sunday that it would be difficult for the APC to effect Ekweremadu’s removal when its senators had been factionalised.

He said, “The issue of removal of Ekweremadu; it is not impossible but it has a lot of consequences. You cannot achieve the removal of Ekweremadu until there is a united APC senators.”