The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday condemned comments by the national chairman of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, ‎against the emergence of deputy president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.

Spokesman of the Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee of the PDP, Dayo Adeyeye, in a statement issued in Abuja had drawn attention to remarks credited to Oyegun against Ekweremadu as deputy Senate President.

Oyegun was reported as having said that: “I think the thing that rankled us most was the election of Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President. Saraki is a member of the APC, much as the main line of the Party would have wished a different result and a different scenario. But we all find it very, very difficult to accept the emergence of a PDP person as his deputy”.

But Adeyeye in his statement said:”Although this has been an open secret, but our fears have now been confirmed by the APC National Chairman himself.

“We however, want to make it clear that the APC has no constitutional or moral grounds to be displeased with Ekweremadu’s emergence or to go this ridiculous length to harass, intimidate, embarrass, and malign him and the Institution of the Senate on account of a position to which his colleagues, cutting across party lines, elected him in a transparent and televised election in line with Section 50 of the 1999 Constitution as Amended.

The statement continued:”Even the APC as a Party and through its chieftains, including President Muhammadu Buhari (before his Election), had variously and robustly defended the constitutionality and imperativeness of bi-partisan
legislative leadership during the defection of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal to its fold while in opposition without relinquishing his position.”

“We, therefore, invite the APC-led Federal Government to tell the world why bi-partisan leadership in the legislature was good in the instances of Rt. Hon. Tambuwal as well as the Benue and Plateau Assemblies, but an abomination in the case of Senator Ekweremadu.

The PDP said it considered APC’s stance on Ekweremadu and the “continued persecution on this account as the height of duplicity, intolerance, and executive excesses unwarranted and inexcusable in a democracy.”

“More so, unlike APC’s rancorous opposition in parliament in the recent past, the PDP lawmakers, including Senator Ekweremadu has provided a very responsible opposition, supporting the government and overlooking
its serial fumbles. Ekweremadu is not APC’s stumbling block!

“We wish to remind the APC that the National Assembly is a separate arm of government created by Constitution, not an arm of the Executive or extension of the APC’s Party Secretariat.

“We totally align with the separate resolutions of the Senate and House of Representatives on 21st of June 2016 to the effect that our democracy is in grave danger.”

“We support the call on members of the International community, the media, and civil society to help arrest this scary deterioration of our nascent democracy and democratic values before it is too late. What is good for the goose is good also for the gander”