#PDP CRISIS: Senate President under pressure to dump GEJ, Tukur The factionalization of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is having a toll on the political balance of the Senate as its President, Senator David Mark, has come under fresh pressure to dump his support for President Goodluck Jonathan and the national chairman of the party, Mr. Bamanga Tukur. LEGISREPORTS gathered from informed sources that Senator Mark has been identified as a bulwark of support for the President and the Tukur- led PDP and as such has come under heavy pressure from sections of the northern political establishment to dump Jonathan. Part of the pressure on Mark as gathered, is also coming from some influential senators who have switched allegiance to the splinter group of the PDP led by Mr. Abubakar Baraje. These senators who are doing the bidding of their governors and top notchers of the anti-Jonathan bloc of the north believe taking control of the senate as an institution, is key in the plot to stop Jonathan in 2015. About 22 senators have identified with the Baraje group of the party which pulled away last Saturday during the national convention of the PDP at the Eagles Square in Abuja to another venue. Former vice president Atiku Abukakar led seven governors of the party and many members of the national assembly to form a splinter group of the ruling party. The governors are Rabiu Kwakwanso (Kano), Aliyu Babangida (Niger), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Murtala Nyarko (Adamawa) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) who had been suspended from the party since May and so did no attend the convention at the Eagles Square. LEGISREPORTS also learnt that the threat yesterday by Tukur to declare vacant seats of senators and House of Representatives members that have identified with the Baraje group have also introduced another dimension in the political crossfire in the PDP as Mark is being relied upon by both factions to do their bidding. “Specifically, the anti-Tukur senators expect the senate president to offer them protection and counter any move by the Tukur to actualize the threat against their seats,” said a source, who added that Mark is also being relied upon by the presidency to help rein in the revolt by defecting senators against the Tukur-led leadership which is clearly backed by President Jonathan. The source further informed that this scenario has put the senate president in some form of quandary which is “further compounded by the fact that he quietly nurses a 2015 presidential ambition for himself and is only watching the waters before he decides to go headlong into the fray for Jonathan’s job.” LEGISREPORTS got to Senator Mark through his media aide, Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan, who did not deny our report but insisted that the senate president as a leader in the party is involved in peace moves that would unite the party, PDP. #LEADERSHIP
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:10:23 +0000
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