TheCable

Kabir Marafa, a senator of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says his party is praying that the power tussle in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should continue.

In an interview with PUNCH, Marafa said the crisis would give the APC the opportunity to receive members of the PDP.

“Senator Ahmed Makarfi and senator Ali Modu Sheriff have successfully to our delight, caused a division in the PDP,” he said.

“We are always praying that their power tussle will continue.

“While I pray for Makarfi to have the upper hand, I am also praying for Sheriff to have the power and ability to sustain the fight, so that we (APC) will be taking the senators one by one.”

The PDP has lost two senators – Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Yele Omogunwa (Ondo) – to the APC in the 8th assembly.

Both lawmakers cited the crisis in the former ruling party as reasons for leaving.

Marafa has also reiterated his call for Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, to join the APC.

Although the PDP warned Marafa when he first made the call, the representative of Zamfara central has advised Ekweremadu to leave PDP in his own interest.

Back then Dayo Adeyeye, spokesman of the Makarfi faction, had said:“It is very distasteful and uncharitable for any senator to stand on the floor of the hallowed chamber and ask his colleague to violate the constitution by cross-carpeting from his own party to join the ruling party.

“Let us remind Sen. Marafa that Sen. Ike Ekweremadu was elected as deputy president of senate by majority votes from both the PDP and APC senators.

“Any attempt to remove Sen. Ekweramadu for being a member of the opposition party and not because of a constitutional breach or incompetence is a call for anarchy.”

But Marafa explained that the constitution states that if a party is in crisis, a senator could defect to another.

He described the situation in the PDP as “a golden opportunity” for Ekweremadu to defect to APC.

“The constitution says once there is a division (in a political party), senators can defect,” he said.

“Let  Ike — instead of moving against his seat, which I don’t want to do because he was my leader in the 6th and 7th Assembly and now in the 8th Assembly — use this golden opportunity to defect to the APC and the party will become one in the senate.

“Then, I can tell you that the senate will be stable and there won’t be any friction. The little (issue) we can then have may be due to human nature. You never can say that you will gather people and they will not disagree.”