Three PDP senators, four Reps join APC

The gale of defections at the National Assembly continued yesterday with three senators and five House of Representatives members switching political platforms.

The defecting senators – Amos Yohanna (Adamawa North); Aminu Iyal Abbas (Adamawa Central) and Ikra Aliyu Bilbis (Zamfara North) – dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Their defection consolidated the ruling party’s dominance in the Red Chamber with 84 senators.

They announced their resignation from the PDP in separate letters read on the floor of the chamber during plenary.

In the House of Representatives, four members defected to the ruling APC from the PDP and Labour Party (LP). Osun State Adewale Adebayo (Osogbo Federal Constituency) switched from PDP to Accord.

The others, who had their letters read on the floor of the Green Chamber by Speaker Abbas Tajudeen during plenary, are: Inuwa Garba and Abdullahi El-Rasheed from Gombe State; Joshua Chinedu Obika of the LP representing AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Mohammed Audu (Taraba State).

Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who read the defection letters, subsequently directed the senators to take their new seats on the majority side of the chamber, after which they crossed over to join the APC Caucus.

The latest defections came barely 24 hours after Senator Ipalibo Harry-Banigo (Rivers West) also dumped the PDP for the APC.

Senator Ipalibo was Rivers State Deputy Governor, during Nyesom Wike tenure as governor.

With the development, the PDP’s strength in the Senate has dropped from 17 to 14 members, while the APC has increased its numbers from 81 to 84 senators.

Akpabio described the trend as a reversal of what transpired during the Eighth National Assembly when several APC lawmakers migrated into the PDP.

He said: “To me, what is happening now between PDP and APC senators is more of a one–one draw. In 2018, during the Eighth National Assembly, about 30 senators defected from the APC to PDP in one day.

“Now in the 10th National Assembly, it is the other way around, with PDP senators moving in large numbers to the APC.”

The Senate President linked the development to improved governance at the federal level.

“PDP senators are defecting for obvious reasons of the good governance being rendered at the centre by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has rescued the nation’s economy from bankruptcy to buoyancy through very bold decisions and reforms,” he said.

Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said the steady movement of lawmakers into the APC reflected growing confidence in the leadership of President Tinubu.

“The defectors are not daft. They have seen that something is working in the country for the good of all, which they believe they must be part of within the APC caucus,” Bamidele said.

Bayelsa Senator Seriake Dickson is the sole representative of the newly registered Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

Out of the constitutionally required 109 seats, the Senate currently has 106 members following the deaths of senators Godiya Akwashiki (Nasarawa North); Okechukwu Ezea (Enugu North) and Barinada Mpigi (Rivers South East), whose seats remain vacant.