Ganduje, others in Senate as three Kebbi senators defect to APC

PDP seats in Senate drop to 30

…Tinubu not responsible for defections, says Senate leader

Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC), Nasir Idris, Kebbi State Governor, and several APC supporters and associates, filled the gallery in a show of solidarity alongside the National Executive Committee members visited the Senate on Tuesday to witness defection of the three Senators from Kebbi State.

Jibrin Barau , the Deputy Senate who presided the plenary welcomed the August visitors and after announcing their presence in the Chambers, went further to announce the defection of Senator Adamu Aliero representing Kebbi Central Senatorial District to the APC.

Those who defected were former governor and minister, Adamu Aliero; Sen. Yahaya Abdullahi; and Sen. Garba Maidoki. All three senators are from Kebbi State.

Aliero, a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), represents Kebbi-Central Senatorial District, while Sen. Abdullahi, a former Senate Leader, represents Kebbi-North. Sen. Maidoki represents Kebbi-South.

Their defection letters were read to senators by Barau. The defectors alluded to the internal leadership crisis in the PDP as the primary reason for dumping the leading opposition party.

They also expressed a desire to join President Bola Tinubu and support his bid to transform the country through his ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’.

Aliero, himself a former governor of Kebbi State, in his letter, said politics was about service and solutions, adding that he would work on a platform that allowed him to effectively discharge service to his people.

“The PDP, as it currently stands, has internal divisions”, he stated. According to him, “APC has shown encouraging signs of transformation” and growing commitment to prioritise national development.

He described the party as offering “a more viable platform on which I can serve my constituency.”

Sen. Abdullahi told his colleagues that defecting to APC was like “home-coming” for him, having been a member of the party in the 9th Senate before he defected, owing to some disputes.

“I am back to the APC again. It’s a home-coming event for me, moreso  to join President Bola Tinubu in his drive to transform the country”, “ he said.

Abdullahi disowned the PDP, saying that the party was “going through existential challenges” following its loss of the 2023 elections. “I have chosen to disengage from the PDP in good faith”, he added.

The defection increased the number of ACP senators to 68, while the PDP’s number dropped to 30.

The Labour Party has 5 senators, the SDP has 2, the NNPP has 1, and APGA has 1. Speaking to welcome the defectors amid singing and clapping by APC senators, Opeyemi Bamidele, the Senate leader, said the defection was “democracy at work.”

He disputed the feeling that the wave of defections to APC was caused by President Tinubu as part of his scheming to turn Nigeria into a one-party state and run as the sole candidate for the 2027 poll.

Bamidele said, “This is part of the beauty of democracy. But before anything, let me remind all those who are insinuating on the largely unregulated social media that the President of the country, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, is working with his party, the APC, to turn Nigeria into a one-party democracy.

“We were all in this country when the People’s Democratic Party was a ruling party, and we saw all manner of things that happened at the polls, in an attempt to get more states, more senatorial seats, more House of Representatives seats, and so on.

“We are not at the polls. No one is being coerced. If anyone would be coerced, definitely it is not the Senator Adamu Aliero that I know and that all of us know. It is not Professor Yahya Abdullahi that would be coerced by anyone, nor is it Senator Maidoki who had also made a mark in the private sector before he ever ventured into politics.”

Bamidele added, “They are not in politics so that they could feed, and as far as we are concerned, Professor Yahya Abdullahi that I know would rather stay in opposition and be very loud, and more Nigerians will probably even celebrate him doing that.

“But they recognise the fact that this is not the time for grandstanding. This is the time for all of us to work together to take Nigeria to the next level.

“And I say it again for the umpteenth time. Those who refer to this Parliament as a rubber-stamp Parliament should note that we are at a very critical stage of our national life when all hands must be on deck.

And today, it is not about what political party you belong to. We say it every time that once we are in this hallowed chamber, it will not matter what party you belong to. What will matter to you is overriding public interest, and in the course of collectively serving overriding public interest, three of our eminent colleagues also saw the need to cross the aisle and come to the ruling party.

“All three of them are from Kebbi State. One of them had been privileged to be the Governor of Kebbi for eight years. He had been privileged to serve as Honourable Minister and is a most ranking member of this Senate.

One of them has served as the leader of this Senate in the Ninth Assembly.”

“These are people who know what they are doing. They can never mislead the people of Kebbi State. They can never mislead Nigeria, and I just want to say that for us in the APC, this is a very wonderful development.” Bamidele emphasised.

Bamidele recalled that when the PDP was in power between 1999 and 2015, it made efforts to win more National Assembly seats and other political offices by getting them into the party.

He also argued that people would always want to be part of a system that they felt was working well, as could be said of the current APC government.

Besides, Bamidele pointed out that defectors were all eminent, accomplished Nigerians, who would not be influenced or coerced by anybody before they would make a decision.

The leader also dismissed the impression that the 10th Senate was considered a rubber stamp of the executive.