A member of the House of Representatives from Kaduna State, Amos Mogaji, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Mogaji’s defection was contained in a letter read by the Speaker of the House, Abbas Tajudeen, on the floor of the House on Tuesday.
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The lawmaker, who represents Zangon Kataf/Jaba Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, cited division in the PDP as the reason for his decision to leave the party.
He said the party is grappling with division at both the national and ward levels, adding that all efforts to address the problem have proven abortive.
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While members of the ruling party were congratulating Mr Mogaji for joining their party, the minority bench, led by the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, attempted to protest the defection by raising a constitutional point of order.
Mr Chinda cited Section 68 of the 1999 Constitution to argue his point of order and called on Mr Tajudeen to declare the defector’s seat vacant.
However, members of the ruling party responded with loud boos, rejecting the order.
While ruling on the point of order, Mr Tajudeen said that since the defector had cited division in the PDP, he had complied with the law.
Section 68 (1g) of the 1999 Constitution states:
“A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if—
“being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected. Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
This defection is the latest to affect the minority caucus.
Both the Labour Party (LP) and the PDP have seen a significant decline in their numerical strength in the House.
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The PDP has been grappling with an internal crisis since its presidential primary in 2022. Despite efforts at reconciliation, the crisis has remained unresolved.
A similar situation exists in the Labour Party, where division within the national leadership has been raging since the general elections.
Several lawmakers have taken advantage of these crises to defect from their parties.
Last week, Delta North senator, Ned Nwoko, defected from the PDP to the APC.
