R-APC National Assembly Members Plot Mass Defection July 31

 

Members of the All Progressives Congress in the Senate and House of Representatives may defect en mass to the Peoples Democratic Party shortly before July 31, SUNDAY PUNCH has gathered.

Investigations on Saturday showed that the Reformed All Progressives Congress split from the main APC, on Wednesday, was the first phase of the plot ahead of the mass defection.

It will be reminiscent of a similar mass defection by the new Peoples Democratic Party to the APC in the run-up to the 2015 polls in 2014.

Findings indicated that in spite of the belittling of the strength of the R-APC by the APC, many lawmakers were aggrieved and would leave the latter.

One senior source among the lawmakers told SUNDAY PUNCH that though he had chosen to stick with the APC for “personal reasons,” he was aware that many of his colleagues would spring a surprise soon.

Fighting with govs over 2019, power sharing cause of split

The source added, “A lot is happening but the whole truth is not being told by the APC. There is this impression that because the party has many supporters in the North-West, there is a guarantee for them.

“Members are not happy. Politics is about self interest. When governors collude with party officials to snatch the return tickets of members, you know they will seek survival elsewhere.

“Return ticket is the issue. In the APC, many of them have been told to forget 2019. If they will get it in PDP, then that is the aim of the planned mass defection. There are consultations across board and before the end of the month, they will make the defection come through.

“With the split, the R-APC has fulfilled the provision of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution. There are sufficient grounds to leave the APC today with the division created by the split.”

The section reads, “A member of the Senate or House of Representatives shall vacate his seat 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 is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member…”