Senate Set For Stormy Session Over Defections

Agency ReporterJuly 17, 2018

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Barring last-minute change of plan, some members of the Senate will announce their formal defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to different opposition parties on the floor of the Senate either at the tail end of today’s sitting or Thursday.

A source said that the development might lead to a stormy session of the Red Chamber.

Since the emergence of a splinter group peopled by the aggrieved members of the APC about two weeks ago and subsequent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by opposition political parties for a coalition to dislodge the APC in 2019, not a few lawmakers have kept their thier plan to defect close to their chest as they were not willing to announce their defection in the absence of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

Saraki, who had travelled to the United States on official assignment since last week, returned to the country on Sunday ahead of Tuesday’s plenary session.

APC Senators from Kwara, Adamawa, Kogi, Benue, Sokoto, Kaduna, Niger, Kebbi, Kano, Yobe, and other states are expected to announce their formal defection to opposition parties like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and ADC, among others.