Some chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, Nigeria’s main opposition party, have said the party will warmly welcome erring members of the All Progressives Congress like Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
The party chieftains, Senator Sam Egwu; Dr. Akilu Indabawa, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees; and Alhaji Owolabi Olorunoje, Chairman, Lagos State chapter of the PDP, told our correspondent on Thursday that defection of the erring APC members in the National Assembly would amount to paying APC back in its own coin.
Saraki, Dogara and some other APC legislators had gone against the party’s directive by putting themselves up for elections into principal positions in the National Assembly.
Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila were expected to be the only APC candidates presented for the positions of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives while George Akume and Mohammed Munguno, were to be their deputies, respectively.
But since Saraki and Dogara put themselves up for elections and won in their respective chambers against their party’s directive, speculations have been rife that their actions might be laying groundwork for their defection to the PDP.
Incidentally, Saraki and Dogara used to be PDP members before they defected to the APC in 2014.
Saraki has, however, described such insinuation as “absurd and laughable.”
But the PDP chieftains had said they would be welcome to the party should they decide to defect from the APC.
Egwu said, “What has happened now is just speculation about what has happened or what may happen tomorrow but the truth is that they are mature individuals and Saraki has said he’s not defecting but if he comes back to the PDP, we will receive him with open arms.
“People should understand that politics is dynamic and if they feel that they will be given the platform to exercise their fundamental rights more in the PDP, so be it, they should come back to the PDP and we have no qualms with that. After all, they used to be our members.”
He also described APC as ill prepared to be the country’s ruling party, saying the party lacked the vital experience required for the position.
He said, “What is happening shows that the APC is not actually prepared for their victory (at the poll). They forgot that this is not a party convention. The National Assembly is an independent arm of the government and they had to meet as scheduled.
“So it shows a sign of unpreparedness or not knowing the workings of government, for the party to schedule a meeting at the time the National Assembly was supposed to reconvene and have its business.”
In his reaction, Indabawa, who shared a similar view, said, “What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If APC is getting payment in its own coins, they will be consumed by their own sweat. This is a product of their own machinations against PDP and it is haunting them back.
“That is why when you are planning; don’t ever plan evil against your brother because one day it will haunt you. So it is coming back to haunt them now.
“When they plotted against the PDP using Aminu Tambuwal (immediate former Speaker of the House of Representatives who defected from the PDP to APC) and others, they never thought that they would be in the government as the ruling party. Now they are there, so they are getting paid in the very same coin they produced.”
Olorunoje said, “PDP didn’t kick them out, it was as a matter of choice that they came to the PDP and left the party. PDP is a party that doesn’t belong to anybody; you can come in, register and leave when you want.
“This is the PDP so it’s the peoples’ party. So if he (Saraki) decides to return to the PDP today, he’s most welcome. When APC said the party would sanction their members, it’s like saying what they did was illegal. But what they are doing is not against Saraki and Dogara, it’s against the people of Nigeria.”
