2019 polls: Mass defections hit APC

…Buhari wishes defectors well, says he’s committed to democracy
The mooted disaffection in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) blew open on the floor of the National Assembly on Tuesday with 14 Senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives dumping the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

With the defection of 14 senators of the ruling APC on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, the rank of the PDP in the Red chamber has now swollen.

While 14 senators defected to PDP, Senator Abdulaziz Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) defected to African Democratic Congress (ADC).

With the defection, the ruling APC now has its ranks depleted in the Senate. The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has one senator while 2 seats are yet unoccupied as a result of the death of Senator Ali Wakili (Bauchi Central) and Senator Bukar Mustapha (Katsina North).

The defectors had notified the Senate through a letter read by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, during plenary.

The letter reads: “Dear Senate President after due consultation with our constituents and stakeholders in our constituencies, in proper recognition of section 68(1G) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and with the fact our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), is hereby emershed in factions.

“We hereby inform the Senate that we the undersigned are changing our political affiliation from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“We thank you for your exemplary leadership”.

Swelling the number of PDP senators are Lanre Tejuoso (Ogun Central), Shaaba Lafiagi (‎Kwara North), Barnabas Gemade ( Benue North East), Dino Melaye‎ (Kogi West), Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara South), Shitu Ubali (Jigawa North East), Isa Misau (Bauchi South), Sulaimon Hunkuyi (Kaduna North), Monsurat Sunmonu (Oyo Central), Mohammed Danbaba (Sokoto South),‎ Bayero Nafada (Bauchi Central), Suleiman Nazif (Bauchi North), and Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano).

Hardly had Saraki read the letter when the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, pleaded that the announcement be “quarantined, be contained, to create all avenues for the party to address the issue”.

Lawan said: “Our party, the APC, has its own internal challenges, we have internal disagreement but the disagreement do not translate to factionalisation”.

Pleading with the defectors, Senator Lawan said: “I believe that our senators do not have to move to any other party. I believe that the issue is under discussion by stakeholders in the party. Seriously speaking, this letter should be stepped down”.

In his remarks, Saraki said: “As you know and have seen that the seat beside you is absent.

“As we speak, the Deputy Senate President cannot get out of his house.

“He is under siege. This morning, I could not also leave my street as well all by efforts by some people that believe that today’s sitting must not hold because some members want to move or defect.

“It is not something that has started today; it will not end today; people have gone, they’ve come back.

“But this kind of action does not allow for what you are saying (to Lawan).

“You are speaking as the leader of the Senate, who has been here for many years”.

Also, the Senate flayed security agencies for laying siege on the residence of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, early Tuesday morning, preventing him or any member of his household from coming out of the house.

The Senate as a result called on the Presidency to order security agents out of the house of the deputy senate president and allow him enjoy his constitutional right to freedom.

This decision followed a motion by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North) who came under matter of urgent public importance to call the attention of the Senate to Ekweremadu’s incarceration.

He said the people of Enugu State resident in Abuja defied the rain to invaded Ekweremadu’s house in solidarity calling for his freedom.

Utazi said the people of the South East region are pained by the development described as uncalled for and inimical to democracy.

Senators Sam Anyanwu (Imo East) and Emmanuel Bwacha (Taraba South) condemned the action of security agencies.

Bwacha said it is a strange development that has threatened the nation’s democracy and unity.

The upper chamber later adjourned for its annual vacation to resume on September 26.

But controversy is now trailing the mass defections as both the APC and the PDP are claiming leadership of the National Assembly.

Speaking with journalists after a meeting with the APC National Chairman at party’s Secretariat, Abuja on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader, Ahmed Lawan, said despite the defection of 14 members of the party, the APC still retained majority status in the upper legislative chamber.

Lawan accompanied by key Senators including Aliyu Wammako and Kabiru Gaya told journalists that there was defection to PDP and other parties by some of the party members in the Senate asserting that “what we have come here to do is to brief the National leadership of our party on what happened”.

The Senate Leader stressed that though the APC has lost some of its members to the PDP and other parties but the party still retains the position of number one party with more seats than any other parties in the Senate.

“Presently we are 53 Senators, PDP has 49, ADC has 3, APGA has 2 and we have two vacancies, we lost our colleagues in Katsina and in Bauchi states.

“Those were APC seats, very safe seats and in August probably August 11, elections will be held and by the grace of God APC will claim its seats and APC majority will increase and improve.

“We are also going to work very hard with our leaders here to reach out to our colleagues who have left us to try to explain to them and give them the comfort that APC is the party to work with;

we are hoping that at the end of the day, our colleagues who have left will come back to continue with the nation building process”, Lawan stated.

He also said that the defection does not imply that the APC has failed in its reconciliatory efforts, dismissing insinuations that his position as Majority Leader was threatened.

“If you look at our standing rules, the party with the majority seats provides the majority leader and I told you that we are 53 and PDP is 49, so you don’t need to be a great mathematician to know that we are the majority”, he said.

In the House of Representatives, the majority enjoyed by the ruling APC in the chamber was reduced from the initial figure of 222 to 185 as a gale of defections hit the party following the defection of 37 members from the APC.

While the APC lost 32 House members to the opposing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), four lawmakers from Oyo State joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC) citing division within the party in the state and the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Rep. Orkey Jev, resigned his membership of the APC but is yet to join any other political platform.

A sign that a political tsunami was in the offing in the National Assembly began to emerge early in the day as PDP House members thronged the lobby of the assembly complex discussing in hushed tones to pending realignment of political forces in the House.

When House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, sauntered into the lobby, PDP lawmakers surrounded him, shouting the slogan of the party.

But the atmosphere became charged when the Speaker, Hon Yakubu Dogara, made his entrance as the House members chanted his name non-stop while making his way into the chamber.

Apart from the four Oyo State House members, the other 33 defectors are from Kano, Kwara, Kogi, Benue and Sokoto states.

Arrowhead of the defectors, Hon. Abdulrazak Atunwa at exactly 12. 47 pm submitted the names of House members leaving the APC to Speaker Dogara and after exhausting items listed on the day’s order paper, the speaker reeled out the list of decampees.

Shouts of ‘PDP’, ‘PDP’ rented the air as jubilant PDP House members welcomed the returning lawmakers into their fold.

Some of the lawmakers who dumped the APC and defected to the PDP are Reps. Ahmed Chachangi (Kano); Rasak Atunwa (Kwara); Aliyu Madaki (Kano); Hassan Saleh (Benue); Mark Gbillah (Benue); Nasir Garo (Kano); Hassan Omale (Benue); Zakari Mohammed (Kwara); Funke Adedoyin (Kwara); Olaniyonu Tope (Kwara); Abdusamad Dasuki (Sokoto) and Ali Pategi (Kwara).

Others include Reps. Shehu Usman (Kano); Dickson Takhir (Benue State); Bode Ayorinde (Ondo); Aminu Shagari (Sokoto) and Sani Ranu (Kano).

The Oyo State House members who left the APC are Reps. Sunday Adepoju, Olasupo Adeola, Samson Olugbemi and Akintola Taiwo.

Addressing journalists after the defection, House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, said that in spite of the decamping, his party still holds the majority, saying that the decampees failed to achieve the number of defectors they needed to become the majority party.

Gbajabiamila declared the APC House caucus will encourage the leadership of the party to challenge the defection in court, asserting that based on the Supreme Court ruling, the seat of a member belongs to the constituents who elected him and the party on which platform he contested.

“If ideology was entrenched in our body politics, you won’t see cross carpeting as we see today. Every four years, we witness this. They say survival is the first instinct of every human being, so every four years, everybody is in search of a ticket and l believe that is the bottom line here,” he stated.

In response, the defecting House members led by Rep. Atunwa informed journalists that the current number of decampees represent the first batch of House members leaving the APC as more lawmakers would defect in the coming weeks.

Giving reasons for their defection, he said: “This was a party that we all laboured for, a party that we all joined together from our various parties pre – 2015, campaigned heavily for it in 2015 and we formed a government.

“We came together because we believed in what we have proposed to the people of Nigeria, we believed in change, we believed that this country needs to be better ruled, we believed that the youth of this country deserves better, we believed that the men and women of this country deserves better.

“We believed that there ought to be a better method in social integration, we believed that job opportunities must be provided, we believed that there must be respect for rule of law, we believed that there must be a better way for improved education, we believed in all this ideals;

so therefore, we came together to form the APC, but sadly no sooner have we formed government in May 2015 that the party set itself on the course to derail itself and that derailment continued up till today.

“So already, some of us have been agitating for us to go back for what brought us together and those are the ideals that brought us together, the party nonetheless didn’t listen, rather the party embarked on victimization and criminalisation of its members;

those who it perceived as opponents, those who it perceived as not following the line, those who its felt as having divergent views and therefore it set itself on that course of defection and that defection is what is the first step today.

“Secondly, within the party itself, some of us who were aggrieved came together and brought our grievances to the floor, we were castigated, criminalised and tagged as saboteurs”.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed his total commitment to the values of democracy, freedom of choice as well as total willingness to work with all members of the National Assembly, irrespective of their political party, for the benefit of the nation.

In his reaction to the developments on Tuesday morning at the National Assembly, the President noted that none of the defecting federal lawmakers of the APC had any specific grievances against him or the government he leads; neither did he harbour anything against any of them.

“As the saying goes, all politics is local. We understand that some of the distinguished and honourable lawmakers have issues with their home states, especially on zoning which bars some of them from seeking another term in their constituencies,” he said.

Noting that the APC had done its utmost to stop the defections, the President commended the leadership of the party for relentlessly working for its unity and ensuring success in the upcoming elections.

President Buhari assured members of the APC of his total support and urged party faithful not to despair but to see the defections as a seasonal occurrence that happens on election eve.

He expressed confidence that no harm or injury will be done to the party and its aspirations by the movements.

President Buhari wished all the defected members the best in their future undertakings.