Skip to main content

PDP Back In Control Of Federal House Of Reps After Fresh Defections

February 11, 2014

Five members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Federal House of Representatives have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), consequently handing the reins of the lower chambers to the ruling party.

Five members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Federal House of Representatives have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), consequently handing the reins of the lower chambers to the ruling party.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });

Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal listed the defecting legislators from APC to PDP as Hon. Ladan Shehu Bichi (Kano), Hon. Abdulsalam Adamu (Kano), Hon. Sani Umar Dangaladima (Zamfara), Hon. Shehu Gusau (Zamfara) and Hon. Umar Bature (Sokoto).

In a solitary defection in the reverse direction, Hon. Isa Mohammed Bashiru jettisoned PDP for APC.

The latest in the recent spate of bi-directional defections leaves PDP in control of the chamber with 178 members, 10 ahead of APC’s 168.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });

Banking on its numerical strength, APC recently sought to force President Goodluck Jonathan to cease perceived use of state forces against Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, by mandating its members at the National Assembly to frustrate every bill coming from the Presidency, including the 2014 budget proposal and the approval of security chiefs and ministerial nominees of the president.

“The National Executive Committee of the APC has now resolved that if these acts of impunity and lawlessness continue unabated and the Police persists in being an enforcement arm of the PDP to the detriment of our members, it will have no alternative than to ask our teeming members all over the country and especially in Rivers State to take whatever steps that are necessary to protect their lives and property”, the opposition party said at the time.

“Following on the forgoing and in view of the joint resolutions of the National Assembly on Rivers State, and other constitutional breaches by the Presidency, the APC hereby directs its members in the National Assembly to block all legislative proposals, including the 2014 Budget and confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public office until the rule of law and constitutionalism is restored in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria in general”.

 

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });