Ekweremadu as Alternative: Behind the story
When news filtered in late Monday night, June 11, that Senator Francis Alimikhena, might back out of the race for the office of the deputy senate president, it became imperative that the PDP Senate Caucus must get a quick alternative.
The alternative became necessary when the party’s senate caucus had reached a decision not to vote Senator Ovie OmoAgege for the office of the deputy senate president. In a meeting Sunday night at the residence of the former deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, the PDP senators had agreed to vote Alimikhena.
The reason for the action was the ignoble role allegedly played by Omo-Agege in the 8thsenate with the stealing of the mace. According to the PDP senate caucus, to vote Omo Agege is to reward him for bad behaviour.
That also accounted for why the PDP members, Monday night, summoned a meeting at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge to discuss the development of Alimikhena backing out from the contest due to pressure from his party, the APC.
The invitation to the meeting signed by one of Ekweremadu’s aides said, “Dear PDP Senator-elect, I have been directed by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu CFR, to invite you to a meeting with Governor Wike today.”
But the outcome was not what they wanted. Thus, to save the day and fill the gap, Ekweremadu was mandated to fill in the gap. As a result, they moved to the residence of the Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson to present Ekweremadu as the alternative to Alimikhena.
But when the PDP senators met at Dickson’s residence and the Ekweremadu option was mooted, it was rather too late for many of the members of the upper chamber of the National Assembly to support him. The meeting lasted barely 40 minutes as the PDP senators openly disagreed with the Ekweremadu option.
Those of them, who spoke to THISDAY in the early hours of Tuesday, reiterated that it was too late in the day to float a candidate in the person of Ekweremadu for the office of the deputy senate president. They argued that many of them had taken a committed position and that it would be difficult to get a consensus among members.
Though still unrelenting, the meeting was moved again to Ekweremadu’s residence in the Apo Legislators’ quarters. At the