- Safiu Kehinde
Abia State lawmaker, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe, has alongside his Sokoto State counterpart, Sen. Aminu Tambuwal, defected from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Also joining Abaribe and Tambuwal in announcing their defection to the ADC during the Senate plenary session on Thursday were Sen. Ireti Kingibe (Federal Capital Territory), Sen. Binos Yaroe (Adamawa South), and Victor Umeh (Anambra Central).
Other defectors include Tony Nwoye (Anambra North), Lawal Usman (Kaduna Central), Ogoshi Onawo (Nasarawa South), and Austin Akobundu (Abia Central).
Their letters of defection were read on the floor of the Senate by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Reacting to the development after reading the letters, Akpabio welcomed the lawmakers to their new political platform.
He however dismissed suggestions that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was responsible for the wave of defections.
“Deputy Senate President and Leader of the Senate, I hope you noticed that I have read (defections) from three different political parties now.
“So, you cannot accuse the ruling party of tampering with its leadership. Here, we have APGA, Labour, SDP, and all of them.
“So, all of them have a problem. They’ve not been able to put their parties together. So, the APC cannot be blamed for this.
“They are all out to ensure that we have what you call a minority status in this chamber, and I am very proud of them.” Akpabio said.
According to reports, the latest defections now see APC retains a dominant majority with 87 senators, while the PDP has dwindled to seven members.
The ADC, on the other hand, now boast of having seven senators in the chamber while minority parties such as the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have one senator each, bringing the total membership of the Senate to 106.
However, the latest defection served as a huge blow for the Labour Party and Social Democratic Party (SDP) who now have no representation in the upper chamber.