BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

ABUJA— Apparently  reacting to recent statements credited to Senators Bukola Saraki and Bindo Jibrilla that 17 senators elected under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would defect to the All Progressives Congress, APC, this week, the Senate, yesterday, said it would not accept joint defection of members.

It said the senators were not jointly elected into the Senate and so cannot present a joint letter of defections, adding that those wanting to defect must present ‘’individual- open- letters’’ stating their movements to other political parties.

The Senate spoke through its Chairman, Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Enyinaya Abaribe, at a media briefing, in Abuja. Abaribe said that so far, the Senate has not received any letter from senators on defection to any political party.

According to him, the existing constitution forbids mass defection, hence the Senate would not disobey the law.

His words: “I have had cause to say this because the process for anybody to move from one party to the other is very well stated in the constitution and the process is open, clear and not in a way that can be misunderstood.

“Don’t forget that every senator did an election on his own. There wasn’t a joint election. So senators can not write joint letters to the Senate President about defection. It must be on individual basis and every person who has to leave, for whatever reason, will have to state his reason and also do it personally.

Abaribe said the Senate was not a place for partisan politics but for nationalists.

Vanguard gathered that the senators who had wanted to carry out the action last week, shortly after resumption from Christmas and New Year recess, suspended it after the Senate leadership disclosed that they must submit individual letters stating why they have moved to other political parties.