Tension In PDP Over Senate Minority Leadership Reshuffle

Tension is building up in the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the decision of the party to replace Senator Clifford Ordia (Edo Central) with Senator Sahabi Yau (Zamfara) as the Deputy Minority Whip.

Naija News reports that the PDP is expected to submit the names of its leaders to Senate President Ahmed Lawan when the National Assembly resumes next week Tuesday.

Recall that the PDP leadership wants to replace Senator Ordia with Senator Yau so as to carry the North West along in the leadership of the 9th National Assembly.

This plan has not gone down well with some members of the Senate, who are plotting to resist moves by the PDP leadership to reneged on what was agreed earlier.

According to Daily Trust, this aggrieved Senators said that the South-south gave the opposition the highest number of votes in the last general election.

A senator stated that there was an apparent pressure from some quarters on the NWC.

The lawmaker called on the party’s leadership to remain firm and not yield to any undue pressure.

He said: “We met where an election was conducted. Nominations were made in the presence of party leaders and PDP senators and winners emerged. Those who emerged were unanimously backed by the various organs of the party.

“In any case, under the rules of the Senate, it is not the responsibility of the NWC to select principal officials. It is the responsibility of the senators themselves to do that. The minority senators have freely elected those they want and nothing will change it.

“The argument that they want to represent every part of the country is false. There are eight positions open to the PDP in the two chambers of the National Assembly. Even if you share one to each geopolitical zone, two will still get an extra slot.

“Those we selected are known to us. They are the people we can work with. Some governors causing this division don’t know how the Parliament operates. They want to control everything in the party for their selfish interest.

“Maybe the NWC has not learnt its lessons. The APC tried this imposition in the 8th Senate and they paid for it dearly. It’s up to the PDP to allow us to have our way or allow strangers destroy its fold in the Senate.”

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