Jonathan Moves To Stop PDP Senators Joining APC

The signs are now obvious that the APC is coasting home to victory and the PDP will become a minority in the country by early 2014. Consequently, President Goodluck Jonathan's camp is now in panic mood.

The President is mounting serious pressure on the leadership of the Senate to persuade aggrieved PDP men in the Senate not to carry out their plan to dump the party in 2014, promising to "compensate" them.

But one of the senators, who confirmed that meetings were held at the instance of the Presidency, said most of them had made up their minds to already defect to the APC and it is final.

The senator said, “Already some of us have made up our minds to defect and there is no amount of pressure that would stop us. We will formally write the Senate president when we resume in January."

The Senator told Punch that apart from the meetings, Mark had made it a point to contact each of them daily on the telephone, pleading with them to remain in the PDP.

Another source close to the Senate leadership said that the Senate President, David Mark, had personally held a series of meetings with some of the aggrieved senators with a view to making them have a rethink.

"Meetings are being held to prevent the PDP senators from going ahead with their planned action. I am sure the peace moves are yielding fruitful results," he told a Punch correspondents on condition of anonymity.

At the moment, the PDP has 73 senators as against the APC’s 33, Labour Party’s three and one for the All Progressives Grand Alliance.

But with the mass defection, the APC is set to have as much as 80 Senators and take over the Senate.