APC lawmakers say Saraki, Dogara must step down if they join PDP
- APC members in the National Assembly are insisting on their simple majority, which they believe will soon be more consolidated
- The legislators belonging to the Parliamentary Support Group (PSG) may ask Saraki to quit if he is put on trial over the Offa robbery case
- The national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, says the PDP is bereft of a guiding ideology, which is why the party accommodates people without honour
The members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the National Assembly are insisting that Senate president Bukola Saraki and House speaker, Yakubu Dogara, must step down when if they eventually defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Despite the gale of defections that have hit the party, the Nation reports that APC senators are insisting on their simple majority, which they believe will soon be more consolidated.
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The legislators are reportedly demanding that Saraki and Dogara step down if the APC retains the majority in the National Assembly by September 26, when the lawmakers end their annual recess.
There are also reports that legislators, who are mostly members of the Parliamentary Support Group (PSG), may also ask Saraki to quit if he is put on trial over the Offa robbery case.
The group is reported to be strategising on how to consolidate APC’s majority in the National Assembly.
“Deep in their hearts, Saraki and Dogara know that they have some hurdles to cross. The option for Dogara is to remain a member of APC and keep his office. Once he abandons APC for PDP, he has to step aside. And if he does not defect, he won’t get any 2019 ticket in APC,” a member of the PSG group was reported as saying.
A former Senate leader, Senator Ali Ndume, said Saraki would lose the Senate president’s seat automatically if he defects.
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“If Saraki defects, he has to step down. That is what it should be. But, as of now, he has not announced, written or registered. He is only hobnobbing around with PDP. So that is what we have to wait for. If he announces his resignation from APC or his defection, he loses the Senate President’s seat automatically,” Ndume said.
“If Saraki defects to the PDP, he is still our colleague in the Senate, but he cannot remain the Senate President. That cannot work. But he will be a senator like me. The same thing applies to Dogara.
“You cannot participate in PDP primaries while you remain in APC; it is not possible and you can’t remain in PDP and go and participate in APC primaries. Even the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines do not allow you to do that. You have to move to a certain party before a certain period and the period is usually before the primaries.
“I remember in my own case, I moved from ANPP to PDP but I had to do that before the expiration of my time.”
Meanwhile, the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has described politicians who defected from the ruling party as men without honour.
The APC chairman made the statement while reacting to recent defections that has plagued the party at a meeting with party members in the House of Representatives on Thursday, July 26,
The Tribune reports. He said the recent defections gave credence to his earlier view that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was bereft of a guiding ideology, which he claimed gave room to people without honour to be accommodated.
Nigeria News: Will Senators, Lawmakers’ Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? On Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
