2023: Adamu, APC senators meet over defections

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adamu Abdullahi, has met with senators of the party over the recent wave of defections.

Mr Adamu, who arrived at the National Assembly some minutes before 2 p.m. on Wednesday, met with the senators behind closed doors.

After the meeting, the national chairman told journalists that the party was worried that the exit of some of its grieving lawmakers could affect the party’s chances in the forthcoming elections.

While he noted that defections – which he described as unfortunate developments – are common during election periods, Mr Adamu disclosed that leaders of the party are seeking ways to stop it, hence the meeting with the APC senators.

He said although other parties are experiencing similar issues, the problems of the APC “are being exaggerated before the public.”

Although he expressed uncertainty about the persistence of these defections, Mr Adamu hoped that the meeting with lawmakers of the upper chamber would help resolve the issue.

“There is no responsible leader that would not be worried when he loses one member not to talk of two. At the moment we are faced with the stark reality of our problems.

“I have committed my colleagues at the National Assembly to face the problem squarely and see the problem as solvable. We are in politics, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, nobody does,” he said.

Gale of defection

The meeting comes on the heels of defections rocking major political parties in recent times.

However, the APC seems to be the most hit by these defections.

Already, the number of APC senators has reduced to a little over 60.

Every legislative day, since its resumption last week, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, would read a letter of defection from at least one APC senator – some of which he described as heart-breaking.

One of such moments was when he announced the exit of the former Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi and Adamu Aliero, both from Kebbi State.

Mr Lawan would go ahead to announce the defections of Francis Alimekhena and Babba Kaita who joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Haliru Jika and Lawan Gumau who joined the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

While some senators gave no reason for their exit, others cited internal party crises at their state level and the interference of their state governors as reasons for leaving. Some of them left because they could not get tickets during the recent primaries to return to the Senate.

With the defections, the NNPP now has two senators while the Labour Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance and the Young Progressives Party, have one each.