Senate Presidency: 33 PDP Senators-elect back Saraki

Contrary to reports that the 49 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators at the National Assembly may capitalise on the failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to produce a consensus candidate on the issues of senate presidency, National Pilot gathered yesterday that no fewer than 33 senators of the PDP had written to the party expressing their support for Senator Saraki.

This medium had exclusively reported that Senator Saraki’s ambition to lead the 8th Senate had received the endorsement of 31 out of 49 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators-elect. This latest development is coming just as the announcement of the senate president enters its final phase. Saraki, a former governor of Kwara State and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, had reportedly emerged as the leading candidate in the race for the top seat. According to a lawmaker-elect, who spoke with National Pilot on the matter from Abuja on Wednesday on condition of anonymity, Saraki has emerged as the clear leader despite some discouraging results being reported by some sessions of the media. The lawmaker told National Pilot that Saraki is presently enjoying the support of most PDP senators from the South-East and South-South regions of the country in addition to the support enjoyed from other regions. At the time of filling this report, it was gathered that lawmakers involved in the Saraki project were in a meeting with the former governor, who addressed the media on Tuesday about his senate presidency ambition. The source said “contrary to the reports making the rounds that the PDP might exploit the lacuna in the APC to produce a PDP senate president, I can tell you that as at today, many of the PDP senators have made up their minds and have even written to the party expressing their support for Saraki. “You would recall that one of PDP senators from Delta State had addressed journalists on the sideline of the one-day retreat for lawmakers-elect on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Port Harcourt on Monday on why Saraki should be president of the senate. “Also, I can also tell you that the PDP senators-elect from Ekiti, Cross River, Rivers, Abia and others are solidly him and to formalise their support, 33 of them have written to their party, expressing their support for the candidature of Senator Bukola Saraki”, he added.