In a show of its new found power, following the defection of legislators to its fold, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has instructed its members in the National Assembly to prevent the passage of legislative proposals including the 2014 Appropriation Bill, in response to alleged series of constitutional breaches committed by the presidency.
This coincided with the allegation made by the party's caucus in the Senate as well as some senators on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing the Senate President David Mark of frustrating their efforts to defect to the APC.
Rising from a lengthy meeting of its interim National Executive Committee (NEC) held at its national secretariat in Abuja Thursday, APC said it would encourage its members, especially those in Rivers State, to resist further intimidation by the supporters of the PDP if the police did not refrain from being biased.
"Following the forgoing and in view of the joint resolutions of the National Assembly on Rivers State, and other constitutional breaches by the presidency, the APC hereby directs its members in the National Assembly to block all legislative proposals including the 2014 budget and confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public office until the rule of law and constitutionalism is restored in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria in general," it said.
In a communique issued at the end of its eighth regular NEC meeting, APC said it had agreed to shift the membership registration exercise from January 28 to February 5.
On the security crisis in Rivers State, APC expressed worry over what it described as ongoing acts of impunity against its members perpetrated by the PDP while the law enforcement agencies did nothing to stop it.
It vowed that if nothing was done to stop the crisis, the party would have no alternative than to ask its teeming members all over the country and especially in Rivers State to take whatever steps that are necessary to protect their lives and property.
APC commended the courage and maturity of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in the face of serial unprovoked and unwarranted assaults on his person, his constitutional rights and those of the government and people of Rivers State.
"NEC of the APC has now resolved that if these acts of impunity and lawlessness continue unabated and the police persist on being an enforcement arm of the PDP to the detriment of our members, it will have no alternative than to ask our teeming members all over the country and especially in Rivers State to take whatever steps that are necessary to protect their lives and property.
"The conduct of Governor Amaechi represents our party's maturity and compliance with the rule of law in response to escalating impunity.
The APC is very proud of him.
"Any cursory observer of events in Rivers State since February 2013 will be left in no doubt as to the culture of lawlessness and impunity being promoted and supported by the presidency, and executed by the State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu, who has become the de facto military governor of Rivers State and sole administrator of the PDP in the state," the party said.
APC gave instances of the brazen lawlessness and violations of the constitution to include, the forcible dispersal of 13,201 newly recruited teachers in the Port Harcourt stadium using tear gas; blockading the entrance to the Government House in Port Harcourt and forcing the state governor to use another entrance; and prevention of an aircraft chartered by the state governor from taking off, alleging that the governor was trying to smuggle out a legislator wanted by the police.
It also listed other acts of intimidation as the disruption of a peaceful rally during which Senator Magnus Abe was shot with intent to kill as well as the several disruptions of Save Rivers Movement (SRM) rallies, and the unlawful detention of anybody perceived to be a sympathiser of Amaechi, while allowing pro-Jonathan and anti-Amaechi groups to organise rallies unmolested.
The party's resolution to frustrate executive bills in the National Assembly came as a buffer to an earlier letter said to have been written to the leadership of the legislative chambers warning of the ugly consequences of any attempt to declare the seats of defecting PDP members vacant.
THISDAY gathered that APC has taken pre-emptive measures in case PDP moves to declare the seats of the affected lawmakers vacant especially in the Senate by tasking its legal team to dust up all such related cases in the past involving defections that favoured PDP.
On the issue of possible factions emerging from an intra-party crisis in some APC controlled-states, the party denied it, even as there were indications that the leadership had engaged in frantic efforts to stall any plan to have a splinter group within its ranks.
A source told THISDAY yesterday at the meeting that the party leaders had held several meetings with the warring parties in the affected states, especially in Kano, Adamawa, Kwara and Ogun, to try to settle the issues.
He said the party had identified the arrowhead in the move to split APC as a chieftain of the party from Kwara State who had tried to enlist the backing of other aggrieved party members like the former Governor of Kano, Mallam Ibrahim Shekrau and Buba Marwa of Adamawa State.
When confronted with the intra-party crisis, the national leader of APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, dismissed it saying it was a non-issue.
"There is no faction in APC, no 'New APC'; what happened is that there were some intruders who came in but the alarm rang and they ran away," he said
Also one of the defected PDP governors and Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, told journalists at the party secretariat that the intra-party squabbles in APC were being instigated by the presidency and PDP agents.
In attendance at yesterday's NEC meeting chaired by the interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, were Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), Tinubu, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, the Governors of Rivers (Amaechi), Lagos (Babatunde Fashola), Edo (Adams Oshiomhole), Nasarawa (Tanko Al-Makura), Kwara (Abdulfatah Ahmed), Borno (Kashim Shettima), Adamawa (Nyako), Yobe (Ibrahim Geidam), Sokoto (Aliyu Wamakko), Ekiti (Kayode Fayemi), Ogun (Ibikunle Amosun) and the deputy governors of Oyo, Imo, Kano and Zamfara, among other party leaders.
In reaction to APC's directive to its lawmakers to block executive bills, the PDP described the directive as a clear and direct call for anarchy and a vindication of its earlier position that the opposition party was out to destroy the institution of democracy and the unity of the nation.
PDP's National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said yesterday night that with the anti-people directive, Nigerians could now see that the PDP had not been crying wolf when it alerted the people that the APC did not mean well for the nation.
PDP said: "In asking that service chiefs should not be confirmed by the Senate, the APC has revealed its devilish plot to undermine the nation's security system, create a state of anarchy and pave the way to unleash mayhem on the people."
The ruling party said: "In trying to frustrate the passage of the 2014 budget, the APC has also exposed its plot to cripple the nation's economy and plunge the people into untold hardship."
According to the PDP, by attempting to cause confusion in the National Assembly, which is the citadel of democracy, it is now clear to all Nigerians that the APC has commenced the implementation of its orchestrated plot to truncate the nation's democracy, push the country into a state of chaos and achieve its doomsday predictions, a plot which must be stopped.
But as the PDP and APC took up issue over moves to checkmate the Jonathan administration in the National Assembly, the opposition party's caucus in the Senate and some PDP senators have accused the Senate President of frustrating moves to defect to APC.
The accusation followed a letter signed by 31 of the 33 APC senators and 13 PDP senators itching to defect to APC, following a meeting they held in Abuja on Monday, asking the Senate President not to declare the seats of any defecting senator vacant.
The PDP senators who signed the letter, which was obtained by THISDAY with the title: "Sustenance and Protection of the Unity of National Assembly as an Institution", included Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central), Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West), Magnus Abe (River South-east), Wilson Ake (Rivers West) and Shaba Lafiagi (Kwara North).
Others were Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), Aisha Alhassan (Taraba North), Ali Ndume (Borno South), Umaru Dahiru (Sokoto South), Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East), Senator Bindo Jubrilla (Adamawa North), Ahmed Barata (Adamawa South) and Ahmed Zannah (Borno Central).
In the letter, the senators who said they viewed the threat to declare the seats of those defecting vacant with serious concern, also described the threat as mischievous and capable of undermining the independence of the legislature and simultaneously taking the mandate given to such senators.
They also alluded to a court order asking the concerned parties to maintain the status quo until the final determination of the matter of defection before an Abuja High Court, arguing that in view of the order, the matter of defection could not be subjected to debate or discussion in the Senate.
The letter further read: "We hereby note that this is not the first experience in the Senate where some senators have moved to political parties of their choice as a result of one reason or the other, whereas such has not caused any political tension or intimidation, it is our resolve that the Senate should maintain and sustain this principle and precedence.
"It is our resolve that we do not support any attempt that the seat of any senator proposing to defect to another political party be declared vacant except by recall process from their constituents or by the pronouncement of a court of competent and final jurisdiction, rather than politics of intimidation, harassment and or comment that could jeopardise the peaceful co-existence of the unity of Nigeria.
"We finally enjoin the leadership of the National Assembly to continue to accommodate all legislators irrespective of their views, believing that our country can make progress when we tolerate, respect one another and the rule of law."
But one of the senators, who spoke with THISDAY on the letter, alleged that whereas the Senate President was expected to read the letter on the floor of the Senate as it is usually his custom to read any letter on general issues in the chamber, he has deliberately decided not to do so in his move to frustrate the defection plan.
According to him, the plan was that once the letter was read, the defecting senators would follow it up with their defection letter.
But Mark, in his reaction to the allegation through his Special Adviser on Media, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a telephone conversation last night described the allegation as misplaced since no one had written a defection letter to his principal.
He also added that the letter was only addressed to Mark and had not stated that it should be read in the chamber.
"Is the letter in your hand a defection letter? Is it written in the letter that the Senate President should read it on the floor? There is no letter of defection before the Senate President. Nobody has stood up, saying he wants to defect," Ologbondiyan said.
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