Senators from the in the opposition People’s Democratic Party on Wednesday staged a walk out of the Senate Chamber to protest the defection of Senator Yele Omogunwa to the ruling All Progressives Party APC.
The PDP Senator represents Ondo South before his defection to the ruling party pleaded split in the PDP as his ground for cross-carpeting.
While the PDP senators maintained that wit the latest ruling the leadership tussle in the party had put paid to any idea of factionalisation in the party, the APC lawmakers were happy to receive him.
The PDP Senators led by the Miniority Leader Godswill Akpabio walked out of the chamber into one of the conference rooms to address journalists on the development. They were led by Senate Minority Leader, Goodswill Akpabio.
The position of the PDP senators is that the senate president should declare his seat vacant.
According to the PDP lawmakers, any lawmaker who defects to another political party must automatically loose his or her seat.
Mr Omogunwa who had announced his defection to the APC on the eve of the Ondo governorship election, was the only PDP senator from Ondo state.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki read Omogunwa’s letter through which he formally informed his colleagues of his defection.
According to him, division in the PDP was one of his reasons for making the decision.
Speaking after the announcement, senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, said since Omogunwa had defected to the APC, his seat ought to be declared vacant.
He called on the lawmakers not to encourage “political rascality”, adding that the seat belonged to PDP and since there was no crisis in the party, following the ruling of the Supreme Court, which recognized Senator Ahmed Makarfi as the leader of the party, the Senator’s seat must be declared out of order.
He therefore asked the senate president to declare Omogunwa’s seat vacant but Dr. Saraki declined, and ruled him out of order.
Consequently, the minority leader led his fellow PDP senators to a walk out after which, Ovie Omo-Agege, Labour Party Senator from Delta state, was asked to assume the role of minority vacated by the PDP, and proceedings continued.
