Despite
the defection of five lawmakers from the APC to the PDP in Nigeria’s House of
Representatives yesterday there are
expectations the figures could still change in favour of any of the political
parties as more members plan to switch sides. .
However,
the Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday secured a win over its rival in the House of
Representatives, the All Progressives Congress, APC, staging a forceful reclaim
of the majority the opposition party took more than a month ago.
Five APC members announced their defection to the PDP Tuesday,
while only one lawmaker moved from APC to PDP, giving a fair lead to the PDP
that had earlier won an edge last week.
On Tuesday, Ladan Bichi (Kano), Abdulsalam Adamu (Kano), Sani
Galadinma (Zamfara), Ibrahim Gusau (Zamfara) and Umar Bature (Sokoto) said they
were decamping from the APC to PDP; while Isa Ashiru, who represents Kaduna State,
decamped from the PDP to APC.
The PDP now leads the House with between 178 and 179 members,
while the APC drops to between 167 and 168 members. Official figures of the
360-member House are yet to be announced. Other parties with fewer members in
the House include the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA; Labour Party, LP;
and Accord Party.
The margin between Nigeria’s two largest parties would be the
widest yet since dozens of lawmakers, moving from the PDP to APC, staged the
first in a series of defections in the House last December.
The legislators cited the PDP’s intractable crises, and pushed
the APC into a slim lead over the PDP, the first time an opposition party would
be in majority in any of the two houses of parliament, since 1999.
Since then, the numbers have continued to shift with more
members declaring for either of the two parties ahead of general elections in
2015.
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