By Muhammed Abubakar, Reporting
AS the 2027 general elections approach, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the Senate has dwindled to just 14 members following the official defection of three of its senators to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday.
The three senators whose letters were read during plenary were Amos Yunana (Adamawa North), Aminu Iya Abbas (Adamawa Central) and Ikra Aliyu Bilbis (Zamfara Central).
The defection of the three senators, which came just 24 hours after that of Senator Banigo Ipalibo (Rivers West) from the same PDP to the APC on Tuesday, has reduced its Senate membership from 17 to 14 while swelling the APC’s ranks from 81 to 84.
Delighted by the development, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, remarked after the defectors were moved from the left side of the aisle to the right in the chamber that the situation was unprecedented since Nigeria gained independence in 1960.
According to him, the current wave of defections hitting the PDP senators’ ranks in favour of the APC is the mirror opposite of what happened in the 8th Senate back in 2018 when the APC lost many of its senators to the PDP, including the then President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki.
“To me, what is happening now between PDP and APC senators is more of a one-all draw because in 2018 during the 8th National Assembly, about 30 senators in one day defected from APC to PDP.
“Now during the 10th National Assembly, it is the other way round. PDP senators are the ones defecting in multitude into APC for obvious reasons of good governance being rendered at the centre by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has rescued the nation’s economy from bankruptcy to buoyancy with very bold decisions and reforms,” he said.
Earlier in his comments, the Leader of the Senate, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central), said the continuous defection of senators from the PDP and other minority parties into the APC clearly shows that the Nigerian project is working under President Tinubu.
“The defectors are not daft. They have seen that something is working in the country for the good of all, which they believe means they must be among the active participants within the APC caucus,” he said.
The current configuration of senators by political party, compared to when the 10th National Assembly began in June 2023, now stands as follows: APC 84 (up from 59), PDP 14 (down from 36), Labour Party zero (down from 8), NNPP 1 (down from 2), SDP zero (down from 2) and APGA 1.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), which had no senator at the beginning of the 10th National Assembly in June 2023, now has five, while the newly registered Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has one in the person of Senator Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West).
The total number of serving senators now stands at 106, as against the constitutional 109.
The remaining three vacant seats are those of Nasarawa North, which became vacant following the death of Senator Godiya Akwashiki; Enugu North, also vacant due to the death of Senator Okechukwu Ezea; and Rivers South East, vacant following the demise of Senator Barinada Mpigi.
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