There was a rowdy session in the House of Representatives on Tuesday as 37 members left the All Progressives Party .
32 members aligned with the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, 4 members from Oyo State moved to the African Democratic Party, and a member, the chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Emmanuel Orker Jev (Benue) simply “resigned” from the party.
They cited the division in the party, among others as their reason.
The Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) also lost a member to the United Progressives Party ( UPP).
But Aminu Suleiman ( APC Kano) and Umar Nasir (Niger APC) insisted there was no division in the APC and asked the Speaker to declare the seats of the defectors vacant.
However, in spite of such argument, Dogara said he would not do so. According to him, when PDP members defected to APC he did not declare their seats vacant.
The defection was met with victory songs from PDP members before APC members took over with victory songs of their own. This held plenary up for about 10 minutes.
Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, who has been away for a number of days for health reasons, was at plenary today. He was however quiet for most of the session.
With the defection of 37 members from the All Progressives Congress members in the Green Chamber, the party still managed to retain its majority status.
The figures now read: APC 192, PDP 156, APGA 5, ADC 4. Accord 1, SDP 1, Vacant 1
Speaking at a briefing with reporters on the issue, the leader of the House Femi Gbajabiamila, said the defectors can return to APC when they realize “the errors of their ways.”
His words: “Let me say it is always sad when people losing one member, those members were part of the family and I would say very quickly, they are also welcome at any point in time they realize the errors of their ways.
But let me also say that I want to commend the reminder members of the APC in the house who have remained steadfast, who have remained committed to the party, for me that is what politics is all about particularly in a representatives democracy where people elect you on a particular platform for a particular reason,.
“We are all aware of the Supreme Court decision in Ameachi’s case, where
the Supreme Court said and made it abundantly clear that in Nigeria today, it is not the person that is elected, it is the party that people elect.
“We tried to build politics of ideology in this country and that is why I commend our members who have remained committed to the ideology of this party, if ideology was entrenched, we would not see the way people cross Carpet in this country today. In advanced democracy, hardly do you hear about such a thing, so I commend our members for remaining in the party.
“Unfortunately, that section ( under which they defected) has already
been interpreted by the supreme court of Nigeria in the case of PDP versus Adekunle who was a member of the House of Representatives and the meaning of division has been clearly stated by the supreme court and the so-called R-APC that everybody is chanting, does not fall
within the interpretation of the Supreme Court,
“Therefore, we would be encouraging the party to take the necessary steps not because we are against the members, but so that we can further entrench democracy. When people elect you to represent on a particular platform, that seat does not belongs to you, the seat belongs to the constituency, so it is important that this position is stated
clearly, and that we put it to rest.
“I want to say that inspite of the movement of about 36 members I think 4 went to ADC in Oyo State and 32 to PDP and I believe they was one resignation thereafter without a party as of yet, I want Nigerians to know that not only does APC remains the majority of the House, APC is actually a clear majority in the House I believe those who wanted to defect were expecting about 60 members
“I want to say once again that on behalf of all the APC members of the House of Representatives we would continue to do the biding of the people, we would continue to do the biding of the country in spite of whatever shenanigans that may be going on in the country .
“Every four years we witness this, they say survival is the first instincts of every human being, so, every four years everybody is in search of a ticket and I believe that is the bottom line here. “
He however applauded the Speaker and his deputy, Yussuff Lasun and the leadership of the house in the side of the APC “who remained and have piloted the affairs of this House.”
Also the defectors led by Rasak Atunwa ( Now PDP Kwara) in another briefing said the Muhammadu Buhari regime has derailed from the initial ideals of the party.
According to him, they left the APC “for the good of this country and for the good of the people of this country.”
His words: “On the floor of the House of Representatives, a massive defection from the APC to mostly the PDP and some to the ADC, you already know the figures, 37 members left the APC on the floor and crossed over to other parties.
“Let me inform you that ( those that defected) constituted the first batch of those who signified that they would leave the APC and therefore you should expect in the next few days defecting members of the APC on the floor of the House of Reps.
“Having said that, it is important to put on air some of the reason why we felt it is important to leave the APC. Firstly, this was a party that we all laboured for, a party that we all joined together from our various parties came together pre 2015, campaigned heavily for it in 2015 and we formed a government.
“We came together because we believed in what we have been 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 there ought to be a better method in social integration we believed that job opportunities must be provided.
“We believed that there must be respectful rule of law, we believed that there must be a better way for improved education, we believed in all these 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, continued in APC.
“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 rather than listening embarked on victimization and criminalization on its members. Those who it perceived as opponent, those who it perceived as not following the line , those who its feels as having divergent views.”
Atunwa said the party set itself on a course of destruction and “what happened on the floor 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 as being uninformed, we were castigated as being a nobody and being brainwashed.
“Therefore putting all that together, particularly the interest of the country, particularly the fact that the APC are deviating from their ideals to see Nigeria prepared to a higher status, and see Nigeria advance democratically, that to see the economy improving then we felt that if those our concern are been ignored then we are to take a step.
“We took the step today. Like I said, 37 members left the APC as a first batch more people will leave the APC in the nearer future.”
Just as our reporter was about to file this report, another lawmaker, Tony Nwulu ( PDP Lagos) came to brief reporters that he was moving from PDP to United Progressives Party ( UPP).
This changes the figures to APC 192, PDP 155, APGA 5, ADC 4. Accord 1, SDP 1, UPP 1, Vacant 1
Earlier, PDP lawmakers, from the House who had converged at the lobby of the National Assembly when the news of the siege in the House of the President of the Senate Bukola Saraki and Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu filtered in had vowed not to allow a leadership change in the Senate.
They threatened to forcefully gain entry into the Senate Chamber to forcefully truncate any attempt to change the leadership of the Red Chamber.
But the members burst into jubilation when the news of the defection of 15 Senators reached them and started chanting various songs of victory.
They sang “O my home, when shall I see my home” a children’s rhyme made popular by Senator Dino Melaye and taunted the Majority leader, Femi Gbajabiamiila who happened to chance by at the time.
They mobbed him and many could be heard shouting “minority leader! minority leader! Conversely, the Deputy Minority leader Chukwuma Onyeama was hailed as “Majority Leader. “
But the atmosphere suddenly changed as the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara came in. There were screams of “Dogara! Dogara! Dogara!” as they milled around him. until he took refuge in his office at the White House prior to the commencement of plenary.
Some of the members that defected from APC to ADC from Oyo State are: Sunday Adepoju (Oyo), Olugbemi Samson (Oyo), Taiwo Michael (Oyo), Olasupo Abiodun (Oyo),
Garba Umar (Kano), Olayonu Tope (Kwara), Ahmed Garba (Kano), Kabiru Marafa (Sokoto), Zakari Mohammed (Kwara), Abubakar Amuda-Kanike (Kwara);
Also are: Ali Madaki (Kano), Hassan Saleh (Benue), Ahma Pategi (Kwara), Mark Gbillah (Benue), Shehu Usman (Kano), Aminu Shagari (Sokoto), Nuhu Danburam (Kano), Atunwa Abdulrazak (Kwara).
Others are: Salisu Zakari (Bauchi), Hassan Omale (Kogi), Oker-Jev (Benue), Rufai Chanchangi (Kaduna), Abdulsamad Dasuki (Sokoto), Sani Zoro (Jigawa), Benjamin Okolo (Kogi), Funke Adedoyi (Kwara), Bode Ayorinde (Ondo), Bashiru Salihu (Sokoto), Barry Mpigi (Rivers).
Nasiru Sule (Kano), Segun Ogunwuyi (Oyo), Lawal Rabiu (), Sani Rano (Kano), Dickson Tarkighir (Benue) Musa Adotsamiya () and Emmanuel Udende (Benue).