Loyalists allege poaching to frustrate Lawan’s senate presidency ambition

Presiding offices not rights of a party, PDP insists

The campaign for the presidency of the Ninth Senate may have assumed a new dimension as allegations yesterday became rife that some lawmakers were allegedly poaching members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus.

The claim formed the crux of a meeting held on Tuesday night in Abuja by loyalists of Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe State), the anointed candidate of the party for the nation’s number three seat.A source, who craved anonymity, claimed that a returning and another newly elected lawmaker confessed to the caucus that they were to convince 13 senators to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in voting another APC legislator from the North East, the region the post had been zoned to by the ruling political group.

However, the main opposition PDP has stated that it would play a very active role in the election, adding that it could even field candidates for some leadership positions.

Its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, declared: “The PDP does not only have a constitutional say in the process of the emergence of the leadership of the Ninth National Assembly, but will, as a matter of constitutional right, field candidates into presiding offices of both chambers if need be.”

The PDP maintained that the posts of senate president, Reps speaker as well as deputy senate president and deputy speaker were not the exclusive preserves of any political party, but a constitutional right of every elected lawmaker in both chambers.