22 PDP senators plan to dump PDP for APC

No fewer than 22 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senators are to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC), it was learnt yesterday.

The planned defection of PDP lawmakers is coming as the Senate resumes plenary today after the Christmas and New Year break.

A source said the defecting lawmakers used their recess to “dot the is and cross the ts” on the plan to move to the APC.

He noted that the “veiled” threat of the leadership of the Senate to declare vacant the seat of any senator who defects to the APC was not enough to deter those who had made up their minds to leave the PDP.

He insisted that “no amount of intimidation and/or threat can stop the wind of change sweeping across the country”.

He added that “nobody has the right to tell any senator what political party to belong to.”

The defecting senators, he said, would be led by a senator from Kwara State.

Asked about the specific number of senators who planned to defect to the APC, the source noted that “the number is increasing by the day”.

He said: “You are probably aware of 22 senators who have already been reported, but more are likely to join; you just wait and see.”

Senator Ajayi Boroffice, who was elected on the plaform of the Labour Party (LP) from Ondo North Senatorial District, said that it was not true that he planned to defect to the APC on the floor of the Senate today.

Boroffice said: “The report is not correct. I am a member of the APC, but I don’t intend to submit any letter of defection.”

A PDP Senator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, Senator Bindowo Jibrilla, said on Sunday that no fewer than 17 of his colleagues will defect from the PDP to the APC when the Senate resumes.

Jibrila, who in a BBC Hausa Service monitored in Abuja, said the move was being taken to express their displeasure with the management of the party at the national level.

He said: “To be candid, we are 17 senators that will dump PDP for APC in the Senate very soon. This is a serious matter and not a joke, making me to lead the way by joining the APC already.”

The defecting senators going by Jibrila’s calculations are: Senators Bukola Saraki and Shaaba Lafiagi from Kwara State, Magnus Abe and Wilson Ake from Rivers State, and Basheer Mohammed and Hayatu Gwarzo from Kano State.

Others are: Umar Abubakar Tutare and Aisha Jummai Alhassan from Taraba State, Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), Adamu Abdullahi (Nasarawa West) and the three PDP senators from Sokoto and Jigawa states when Governor Sule Lamido defects from PDP to APC this month.

The PDP has 73 senators. APC has 33. Labour Party has two. APGA has one.

The Nation