APC controls house of Representatives as 8 PDP members defect

The Peoples Democratic Party PDP, lost the control of the House of Representatives by numerical strenght yesterday when 8 PDP members defected to various parties while the All Progressive Congress APC regains dominance of the House.

Four of the defectors joined the rival All Progressives Congress, giving indications that the leading opposition party had gained the control of the House as the majority party.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance gained two of the defectors, while the Peoples Democratic Movement and the Social Democratic Party each gained one, bringing to eight the total PDP defectors on Wednesday.


All the defected legislators either cited dissatisfaction with the conduct of the party’s last primaries or divisions in its fold as reasons for their decision to abandon the PDP.
The four who defected to the APC were Garba Ulma, Zakari Ibrahim, Ibrahim Kamba and Abdulmalik Cheche.

Wilson Nathaniel joined the SDP, while Tony Madwatte and Nwogbo defected to PDM and APGA respectively.Another member, Mr. Benjamin Aboho, defected to APGA, while Mr. Forte Dike left APGA for the APC.

Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Victor Ogene, also made his defection from APGA to the APC official on Wednesday.
By Ogene’s defection, both the chairman of the House committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, and his deputy are now members of the APC.

The APC alone gained six out of the total of 10 lawmakers who changed political parties on Wednesday.A National Assembly official told The PUNCH that the series of defections hitting the PDP lately had raised the numerical strength of the APC to 179 members, giving it the upper hand over the former.