Revolt: Jonathan, PDP extend olive branch, meet senators

Less than 24 hours after Senators on the platform of the Peoples Democrat­ic Party (PDP) threatened to shut down the economy and commence impeachment proceedings against Presi­dent Goodluck Jonathan, the party has called for a truce.

Checks by Daily Sun re­vealed that Jonathan called for a meeting with the PDP Senate caucus at the Presidential villa tonight. National Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu’azu, is expected to lead the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to the meeting.
But a ranking Senator privy to the meeting said, “the meeting would only hold if the President returns to the country today (Tuesday). You know he’s away to Burkina Faso.”
The source said that as part of the rapprochement, some Senators would ask “for a cancellation of last Saturday’s PDP ward congresses, espe­cially where there are genuine complaints.”
It was also gathered that another olive branch from the Presidency is the payment of some of the senators’ allow­ances.
They’ve admitted that it was impossible to pay the quarterly allowance in full this time around,” a senator said.
Meanwhile, for the sec­ond day running, Senators convened at plenary and ad­journed after less than 20 min­utes in the chamber.
Before then, in his opening remarks yesterday’s plenary, Senate President, David Mark stated that as the chairman of the National Assembly, he could not pretend that all was well with the legislature, and promised to mediate in the crisis. “We are not to interfere in the internal affairs of each house.
“However, as chairman of the National Assembly, I can­not fold my arms or pretend that all is well about the cur­rent crisis.
“I am, therefore, going to do all I can to resolve the cur­rent impasse. Furthermore, the matter is already in a court of law; we cannot, therefore, discuss the issues here.
“I want to assure all of you that I will do the needful to protect and defend the legisla­ture at all costs,” he said.