• Senate mulls vacating Abaribe’s seat
• APC describes PDP as party sliding into irrelevance

There was a hail of defections at the National Assembly yesterday as 21 federal lawmakers switched from their various political parties to new ones.
  
However, the Senate moved to potentially declare the Abia South seat vacant after Enyinnaya Abaribe defected from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
  
Meanwhile, the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a political organisation steadily descending into irrelevance across the country.
  
At the Senate, nine lawmakers across different political parties defected to ADC, and 12 at the House of Representatives dumped their various parties for others.
  
Their letters of defection were addressed to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, respectively, and read at plenary yesterday.
  
The defecting senators were Abaribe and Augustine Akobundu (Abia), Victor Umeh and Tony Nwoye (Anambra), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Binos Yaroe (Adamawa), Lawal Usman (Kaduna), OgoshiOnawo (Nasarawa State) and IretiKingibe (FCT).
  
Of the 12 House members who defected, six left the PDP for APC; five abandoned the Labour Party (LP) and PDP for the ADC, while one member moved from the Young Progressives Party (YPP) to the ADC.
  
Those who moved from the PDP to the APC are James Barka, Kwamoti Laori, Zakaria Nyampa and Kobis Thimnu (Adamawa), Midala Balami (Borno) and Mohammed Bargaja (Sokoto).
  
Lawmakers who defected to the ADC include Afam Ogene, Peter Aniekwe and Lilian Orogbu (Anambra). Others are Jesse Onakalusi (Lagos) and Murphy Omoruyi (Edo).

While the other lawmakers’ defections were accepted, that of Abaribe immediately drew constitutional scrutiny.
  
Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin argued that the defection could not stand because APGA had not experienced any internal crisis or division that would justify the move.
  
Abaribe, however, maintained that he was expelled from APGA in September 2025, a situation he said necessitated his switch to the ADC.
  
Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, countered, citing Sections 65(2)(b) and 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which stipulate that a lawmaker must be sponsored by a political party and may only defect if the party undergoes a division or merger.
  
“A member of the Senate or House of Representatives shall vacate his seat if he defects to another political party before the expiration of his tenure, except where the defection results from a division or merger in the original party,” Bamidele said. “No division exists within APGA to justify Abaribe’s defection.”

In light of these concerns, Senate President Godswill Akpabio directed Abaribe to provide documentary evidence of his expulsion by the next legislative day. The senator was instructed to either retract his defection or have his seat declared vacant.
  
On the wave of recent defections in the Senate, Minority Leader, Abba Moro, acknowledged the complexity of the situation. He said: “I was given the opportunity to speak on the defections in the minority group, but some of what I intended to say may have already been overtaken by events, particularly regarding a colleague who, by his own account, is now a party-less senator. Your last statement, Mr President, is duly noted.”
 
The latest defections leave the APC with 87 of the 109 Senate seats, ADC nine and PDP seven. APGA, the new National Democratic Coalition Party (NDC) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) each have one seat. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and LP have no senators, while three seats remain vacant.

In a statement yesterday by its Lagos Publicity Secretary, Mogaji Oladejo, APC said the PDP, once presented as a national political platform with lofty promises, now appears to be struggling with internal crises that threaten its continued relevance in the country’s democratic landscape.
  
According to the APC, persistent leadership disputes, lack of ideological clarity, and recurring internal divisions have weakened the PDP, reducing what was once described as Africa’s largest political party to a shadow of its former self.
  
The party recalled PDP’s years in power at the federal level, noting that many Nigerians still associate that period with widespread mismanagement, institutional decline and economic distortions whose consequences, it said, the country continues to confront.