BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE

ABUJA—Senators planning to dump the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for All Progressives Congress, APC, may likely face a herculean task of retaining their seats, as they were voted on political party basis and not individual recognition.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, who made the observation in Abuja yesterday, also noted that the alleged planned defection of some PDP senators to APC would in no way affect legislative business in the senate.
Enang said:  “Let me speak on the point of law; one, who contested the election, is it the political parties or the individuals? It is the political party.

Who won the election? Is, it the political party or individual? It is the political party.
“Whose seat is it?   Is it that of political party or individual?  It is the political party and when you go to vote, do you see the name of individual candidate on the ballot paper?

It is the name of the political party that is on the ballot paper and because we have not passed the law on the amendment that allows independent candidacy,  independent candidates are not allowed in election.

“Therefore,  if you came on the basis of political party and you want to leave, you are leaving the seat; you are not leaving with the seat because it is the party that won the election, that is speaking on law. I am not talking of what will happen in the senate. So individual did not contest election.”

He stated that the threat by the aggrieved PDP senators to defect to APC would not affect the activities of the upper legislative chamber when it resumed next week.

According to him, the Senate is made up of “responsible senators who are always interested in the unity and progress of the country.”

Enang said senators usually considered the interest of the country first before thinking of their various political affiliations.

“The senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria see themselves as one and what is paramount in their minds is how to move the nation forward. We will all work together as a single body to address all issues for consideration, dispassionately,” he said.

He said the issue of defection was only peculiar to the House of Representatives, adding that “we don’t have that experience yet in the senate and when we have the experience in the senate, we will be able to deal with the situation.  F or now, I think the House of Representatives is normally a peculiar case.”

On the alleged automatic ticket by embattled national chairman of  PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur to members of the senate to dissuade them from defecting to APC, Enang denied knowledge of such promise, describing it as a creation of the media.

“The issue of defection is a matter that is being anticipated and I would not want to make comments on such issues because no single senator has so far defected or notified the senate about his or her intention to defect,” he said.

Enang said what would be paramount to the senate on resumption next week would be the consideration of the 2014 budget, so that the document could be worked on and passed  on time.

He explained that since the lifespan of the 2013 budget expired on last December 31, the National Assembly had a responsibility to ensure that the financial document was available for the executive to implement as soon as possible.