Mark warns splinter group against stoking crisis.

The Senate President, David Mark warned the PDP splinter group against causing more harm to the already troubled party. He said: “Even if you have a knife in my head, I will stand for justice, fairness and equity.”

Mark urged the warring groups to come together and uphold a strong and united party.

“I will remain in PDP. I will not allow this House to fall on anybody. Dialogue will always bring progress. There is need for this dialogue and meeting for us to exchange ideas. My prayer is to have a united National Assembly and that this unity should show on the floor of each chamber.

“I have not declared anybody’s seat vacant and I will not declare any seat vacant. I will support fairness, justice and equity. Whatever happens, we should remain one PDP. And we should not pour fuel when there is fire burning. We all admit that there are problems but we should be out to solve them,” he added.

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The Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, had during the plenary session announced the scheduled meeting on the floor. But when Baraje arrived at Room 0.28 Hall to brief the House leadership and the 108 members who have aligned with what the faction was doing, the session was disrupted amidst chant of “Bamanga Tukur, Bamanga Tukur, Bamanga Tukur” by a group led by Henry Ofongo (PDP Bayelsa).

Baraje’s speech was subdued as the group continued shouting at the top of their voices and clapping of hands, a development which rendered the venue of the meeting rowdy with members of both factions exchanging invectives to the chagrin of all present, including reporters.

It got to a point during the session where the pro-Baraje lawmakers, like Dakuku Peterside and Bashir Baballe, were poised to trade punches with the pro-Tukur lawmakers that included Kingsley Chinda.

Apparently piqued by the development, Tambuwal enjoined the warring parties to put aside their differences in the interest of the country’s democracy.

Expressing concern about the crisis in the PDP, he said: “I wish to caution also that Nigerians need a peaceful atmosphere to conduct their lives and business endeavours. I make bold to say that with allowable margin of error, card-carrying members of political parties contribute not more than 25 per cent of the population of this great country.

“We must therefore abstain from heating up the polity; we must not take the rest of Nigerians for granted; we must not over-reach our goodwill; we must not over-task the patience of Nigerians.”