Deputy senate president Ekweremadu close to dumping PDP for APC claiming he is not being respected

DEPUTY senate president senator Ike Ekweremadu is considering dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and joining the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) because he feels he is not being accorded as much respect as he deserves.

Senator Ekweremadu was the highest ranking member of the PDP in the National Assembly until a few weeks ago when senate president Senator Bukola Saraki defected from the APC. Since then, Senator Ekweremadu believes that he has been marginalised within the PDP as he is not consulted before major decisions are taken, so is contemplating leaving the party.

Barring any last minute change, Senator Ekweremadu will join the APC soon as he has been involved in high-level negotiations with the party's leaders. It is still unclear what position the APC will give him upon defection but one party source said Senator Ekweremadu’s defection is just in a matter of days.

If the move goes ahead, it will be another  major defection in the National Assembly after Senator Saraki and former minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, defected from the APC and PDP, respectively. Senator Ekweremadu is said to be particularly unhappy about the fact that he was used and dumped by the PDP.

One APC leader in the southeast said: “Look at the way they treated Ekweremadu. When all of them left, Ekweremadu remained to fight for the survival of this party. How many of them would have resisted the temptation not to defect in the face of the intimidation, harassment, prosecution and persecution meted out on him.

“As a person, he had nothing to lose if he had defected then, in fact, he had everything to gain. He probably would have been the senate president because he was offered the slot. Also, even Saraki knows that if the deputy senate president had not been loyal, they would have gotten at him long ago."

He added that all the trials Senator Ekweremadu was put through were all because of Senator Saraki but, when it was the turn of Saraki to be there for him, he failed him. According to the source, the PDP's presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is yet to call Senator Ekweremadu.

"You don’t treat a man who have been taking bullets on your behalf like that. Well, I wish them and PDP well but they should know that action begets reaction and they will pay the price for this mistreatment of people, who laboured for the party during the toughest time," he added.