Senators declares support for House of Reps Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal; ...threatens to impeach President Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan’s stranglehold on the Senate appears to have finally been broken as the upper legislative chamber on Tuesday declared support for last week’s defection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Senate also vowed to team up with the House to impeach the president if doing so eventually becomes an option the National Assembly has to explore.

This decision was the fallout of the closed-door session held by the PDP caucus in the Senate in protest of their losses at last Saturday's congresses of the ruling party in their various states.

Most of the senators lost out because of the alleged betrayal by the president whom they said they had supported to the hilt prior to his emergence as acting president on February 9, 2009 up to this last weekend.

Demonstrating their bitterness towards the president, the senators shut down the Senate as they boycotted legislative activities by adjourning sitting without considering a single item on the Order Paper.

Although plenary was adjourned till Wednesday, the senators also vowed to repeat the same action today, threatening that the trend would continue indefinitely until the president addressed their grievances.

The action is, among others, meant to frustrate the consideration and prompt passage of the 2015 budget and Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), as they threatened to also shut down the government in pursuit of their personal goals.

After the meeting, one of the senators assigned to brief journalists on its outcome, said with their resolve to abandon legislative business indefinitely, the president is not only losing the House of Representatives but has also lost the Senate, his hitherto stronghold.

Credit: Omololu Ogunmade/Muhammad Bello/ThisDay