Nigeria’s main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, loses more grounds in the Senate on Wednesday as four more senators from the party jumped ship on the floor and pitching their tents with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The defectors include all three Senators from Zamfara State led by the Senate Minority Chief Whip, Sahabi Yau.
Others are Senator Hassan Anka, (Zamfara West) and Hassan Mohammed (Zamfara Central).
Visibly elated by PDP loss, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, read out the defection letters of each of the Zamfara lawmakers who blamed their decision to quit the party on a lack of internal party democracy.
Lawan also read out a similar defection letter from Senator Peter Nwaoboshi who had last week dumped the party after he was suspended by the PDP in Delta State.
Nwaoboshi had in his letter accused the PDP of factionalization, tyranny, and a lack of respect for the party’s Constitution.
Lawan seized the moment to taunt PDP members when he said they should take heart and that he knows this must be very difficult for them to swallow.
With the latest defection, the number of PDP senators in the Senate has waned further; depleted from an initial 44 at the inauguration in 2019 to 38.
The PDP’s loss has been huge gains for the APC whose tally in the Senate now stands at 70.
The Young Progressives Party accounts for the remaining lone Senator, Ifeanyi Ubah.
Speaking to reporters, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the party was not surprised at the defection especially from lawmakers from Zamfara State.
He said the PDP will be in court to retrieve all its mandates allegedly ‘stolen’ from it and gifted to the APC.
