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| Ike Ekweremadu |
The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC has The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC has not rested in its plot to
unseat the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, even it will
make peace with Dr. Bukola Saraki, the embattled President of the
Senate.
Despite last week overture by Saraki to make peace with his party, some
Chieftains of the ruling APC have urged him to ensure he unseat his
Deputy if he indeed wants to make peace with the party, Punch Newspaper reports this morning.
APC was not comfortable with Ekweremadu as the deputy senate president
and Saraki should look for a way of “getting him out,” A Chief who
pleaded not to be named confided in our source
He said that besides being a PDP member, the deputy senate president had
not hidden his disdain for the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration.
The party chieftain stated, “We are happy with what he (Saraki) did with
the committees, but Ekweremadu cannot remain as the deputy senate
president. When the PDP was in power, opposition parties did not
produce the deputy senate president.”
Another APC leader who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “What
Saraki has done is not enough. Ekweremadu must leave that position.”
When contacted to comment on the claim that the APC was insisting on
Ekweremadu’s removal, the National Chairman of the party, Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun, said, “No comment.”
Although, the APC was happy with the appointments, which the Senate
President, Bukola Saraki, made in the committees of the upper chamber on
Thursday, the party believed that for the peace process to complete,
Ekweremadu must resign or be removed.
Saraki became the senate president in June last year against the wish of
the APC, which supported the emergence of Senator Ahmed Lawan.
The former Kwara State governor emerged as the senate president with
the support of the his loyalists under the aegis of Like-Mind Senators
comprising members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the upper chamber
and most of their colleagues in the APC.
It was reported last year that one of the conditions that the PDP gave
to Saraki was to concede the deputy senate president seat to one of its
members.
The senate president defied the APC when he ensured that his loyalists,
except Senator Sola Adeyeye (Chief Whip) became the principal officers.
But on Thursday, Saraki began a peace move when he reshuffled senate
panels and appointed his critics in the Senate Unity Forum as heads of
“juicy committees.”
For example, the spokesman of the SUF, Senator Kabiru Marafa, became the
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream),
while Senator Oluremi Tinubu was appointed the Chairperson of the
Committee on the Environment.
Repeated calls to the mobile telephone number of the party’s National
Secretary, Mai Bala Buni, were neither picked nor returned, a response
to a text message sent to him was being awaited as of the time of filing
this report.
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