The APC caucus came close to losing its majority in the House in July shortly before the National Assembly commenced its annual recess
For how long would the All Progressives Congress (APC) maintain its majority status in the House of Representatives? In the last couple of weeks, the fortunes of the ruling party in the Green Chamber have been on a free fall as lawmakers elected on its platform continue their migration to other political parties.
READ ALSO: A day of rage in the Green Chamber
The APC caucus came close to losing its majority in the House in July shortly before the National Assembly commenced its annual recess. In one swoop, 37 members of the party defected to other political parties, with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) harvesting 32 of the defectors. The defection was a fallout of the crisis among leaders of the party, which led to some aggrieved party leaders forming a splinter group, Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC).
Stunned by the development, the House leader, Femi Gbajabiamila said the APC caucus would advice the ruling party to challenge the defections in court, citing Section 68(g) of the constitution, which prescribes the circumstances under which a member of the legislature could lose his or her seat in the parliament.
“When people elect you on a particular platform to represent them, that seat does not belong to you. That seat belongs to your constituency. So, it is important that this position is stated clearly and that we put it to rest.
“The meaning of division has been clearly stated by the Supreme Court and the so called R-APC that everybody is chanting did 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,” he told journalists.
A crestfallen Gbajabiamila, said the defections, notwithstanding, the APC still maintains a comfortable majority in the lower chamber of the National Assembly.
“I want to say that in spite of the movement of about 36 members, 4 of whom went to ADC in Oyo State and the remainder 32 to PDP, and one resignation thereafter without a party yet, I want to say that not only does APC remains majority in the House, APC is actually in clear, overwhelming majority. I want to believe that those who wanted to defect were looking for about 60 members and they got half which leaves the APC over and beyond what is required for majority, he added.
However, one of the defectors, Aliyu Madaki, who insisted that there is crisis in the APC said the defections, is just a tip of the iceberg in the exit of lawmakers from the ruling party. He said the ruling party has already lost its majority status to the PDP.
According to him, “this is just the first batch. You will see more. This majority that they are talking about, it does not exist. It is only in the figment of their imaginations.”
True to the words of Madaki, things have continued to fall apart in the ruling party caucus, as the exodus out of the party has continued. From July, when the first batch of defectors left the APC, to date, no fewer than 10 other federal lawmakers, including the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, have dumped the party.
Apart from Dogara, many of those who defected recently are those who felt short-changed with the outcome of the nomination exercise in the party.
The outcome of the APC primaries for the 2019 general election had generated so much controversy, with many of the APC members who lost out in their quest to return to the House in 2019 on the platform of the ruling party, threatening to leave, if they are not given ticket.
According to a member of the House from Kaduna State, Musa Soba, no fewer than 70 members of the APC in the House lost out in their bid to contest the 2019 general election on the platform of the ruling party.
Read full story here
http://sunnewsonline.com/house-of-reps-defections-apc-struggles-to-retain-majority-status/
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