Our members free to vie for National Assembly positions, says PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said its members can the contest for leadership positions in the Ninth National Assembly.

A statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that despite their minority status, opposition lawmakers have constitutional right to seek election into any of the presiding positions in any of the chambers.

It stated that the positions of President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker are not the exclusive preserves of any political party, but a constitutional right of every elected lawmaker in both chambers.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has 65 senators-elect, the PDP has 42 and the Young Progressive Party (YPP) has one. In the lower chamber, the APC has 223, against PDP’s 190 and 10 seats shared among a number of fringe parties.

The PDP described as unfair the posturing of APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole as if the presiding offices and committee chairmanship positions in the National Assembly were exclusive rights of the APC.

The statement reads: “President Buhari and Oshiomhole should wake up to the fact that the National Assembly belongs to no political party but to all Nigerians, who exercise their control through their elected representatives.

“For emphasis, Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear in providing that  ‘There shall be:- (a) a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves; and (b) a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves’

“Section 92 (1) makes the same provision for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of State House of Assembly.

“The PDP, therefore, does not only have a constitutional say in the process of the emergence of the leadership of the Ninth National Assembly, but will, as a matter of constitutional right, field candidates into presiding offices of both chambers, if need be.”

Also yesterday, members of the Senate Caucus of the PDP urged their APC counterparts to leave Senate President Bukola Saraki out of the schemes and plots to get his successor.

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The PDP caucus said the APC senators should leave Saraki out of the jostle by senators-elect on the platform of the ruling party over who gets elected into the leadership of the Ninth Senate.

In a statement by Senate Minority Leader, Mrs Biodun Olujimi and Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Sen. Dino Melaye, the PDP caucus stated that it has observed closely as the contenders for the various Senate leadership posts in the APC sponsor various publications in the media to make it appear that Saraki is seeking to play a role in who occupy the various leadership posts in the next Senate.

The caucus warned: “Such surreptitious attempts to drag Saraki into the issue that does not concern him would not augur well for the smooth take-off of the next Senate and could only create suspicion and ill-will among the incumbent Senators and the incoming ones.”