Defection: Mark Foils Moves to Sack Saraki, Goje, 9 Others From Senate

A dangerous dimension was injected into the defection drama yesterday when, through a point of order, a senator moved that the seats of the 11 defecting senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) be declared vacant.

The senators, who plan to defect to All Progressive Congress (APC), were however saved by Senate President David Mark.

The chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business,  Senator Ita Enang (PDP, Akwa Ibom) had through a point of order asked for the defecting lawmakers’ seat to be declared vacant.

Senator Enang who came through Order 14 of the Senate Standing Rules and relying on Section 68 Sub-section (1g) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, said the defectors, having dumped the party that brought them to Senate, had automatically lost their membership going by the constitutional provision.

According to him, Section 68 (1g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended states: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected: Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”

On this premise he asked the Senate President that the defecting lawmakers’ seat should be declared vacant since they had openly defected to another party.

The PDP senators cheered as Senator Enang was making his submission and unanimously urged Mark to declare the seats of the defectors vacant.

However, just like on Tuesday when he ruled the defectors out of order on the grounds that the matter was still in court, the Senate president also ruled Senator Enang out of order for the same reason.

Mark said,  “You were in the chamber here yesterday and I did explain that the matter is in a court of competent jurisdiction. We all agreed that no reference should be made in a matter before a competent court of law. My ruling is that I am not going to be different because it is a constitutional matter.”

- Leadership

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