According to Ola Awoniyi, a media assistant to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, no senator has submitted a letter of defection to his principal, contrary to what certain media sites have reported.
According to several news outlets, the Senate president received letters of resignation from at least 12 senators belonging to the ruling party on Friday, but he chose not to read them out of concern that they might lead to his impeachment in the upper house.
However, Awoniyi rejected the claims in a statement, claiming that no letter had been delivered to Lawan.
The statement read;
We have seen a story on social media and some online newspapers purporting that the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, is sitting on letters from some senators allegedly intimating him of their defections from the All Progressives Congress.
The story insinuated that Lawan is sitting on the purported letters to protect his position as the President of the Senate. We hereby state categorically that the story is utter falsehood as there is no such letter before the Senate President.
On Senator Bulkachuwa
The report mentioned only Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa as one of the affected senators.
It added;
Obviously, the purveyors of the syndicated lies had not even bothered to confirm from the Distinguished Senator if and when he submitted any such letter to the Senate President. It is public knowledge that the Senate President has always promptly read out at plenaries letters by senators defecting from one party to another.
The Senate President is sufficiently knowledgeable about the rules and workings of the Senate and has been discharging his responsibilities within the ambit of those rules.
That is why he has continued to enjoy the confidence and full cooperation of his fellow Distinguished Senators, irrespective of party affiliations.
Lawan’s aide added that such rumours were just meant to sow the seed of discord in the parliament.
The statement added;
Apparently, some vested interests want to magnify challenges to sow seeds of discord in the Parliament in promotion of their selfish agenda.
We wish to reiterate that the Senate President is not withholding or sitting on any letter of whatever content from any of his Distinguished Senator colleagues.
Therefore, any story purporting such exists only in the imagination of the mischief makers circulating it.
