Saraki, 10 Other Senators Shun Meeting With David Mark; claim they are now APC

Former Kwara State Governor and one of APC's strongmen, Senator Bukola Saraki and 10 PDP senators, who had decamped to the All Progressives Congress, twice shunned their scheduled meeting with the Senate President, David Mark on Monday.

    “We will insist that our letter be read. This is not the first time people are defecting in the Senate. You will recall that it was on the floor of the Senate that Senator Patrick Osakwe defected from Accord Party to the PDP, nobody raised the issue of faction in the AP.

    “The PDP welcomed him with open arms. I wonder why people are making a mountain out of a molehill now. Just wait and see what will happen on the floor tomorrow (Tuesday). The Senate has rules and these rules are not superior to the constitution of Nigeria which is the supreme document.”

A senator insisted that since no seat was declared vacant when others defected to PDP, nothing will happen.

David Mark had arrived in his office at 10am, which was the time for the meeting and waited till 2.05pm before he left for his residence when it was obvious that the aggrieved senators would not turn up.

In Kwara State, Saraki and Govenror Abdulfatah Ahmed on Monday publicly formalised their defection to the APC. Saraki urged other members of the party in the state to work for the interest of the masses.

Saraki said, “Today, we have formally become APC members and we are putting PDP to where it belongs. I therefore urge all of you, the members of the interim executive, to carry all along.

“Today, we cease to be part of PDP. We are in APC and if you are in APC, you must be like APC. If you are chairman, you are chairman for everybody. If you are secretary you are for all. If you say you are my followers, you must behave like me.

"There is the need for everybody in his ward to get registered in the exercise which commences on Tuesday."