3 PDP senators defect to APC

Three Senators of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), on Wednesday, resigned their membership of the party and defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

They are: Sen. Sahabi Ya’u (Zamfara North), Sen. Lawali Anka (Zamfara West), and Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi (Delta North).

The lawmakers in three separate letters to the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, attributed their resignation from the opposition to internal crisis, tyranny and leadership failure within the party.

Lawan read their letters of defection during the commencement of the plenary.

The defection letter by the Deputy Minority Whip, Sen. Ya’u read: “I hereby inform Your Excellency and my Distinguished colleagues of my decision to move from the PDP to the APC.

“The decision is necessitated by the endemic crisis that engulfed the Zamfara State chapter of the PDP which led the national body to dissolve the State Exco of the party.

“This has negatively impacted effective representation of my constituents.

“Being a representative of my people, and having consulted widely with them, I decided to defect from the crises-ridden party to a more formidable and peaceful party, the APC.”

On his part, Anka, the Deputy Chairman of Senate Services Committee, also said his defection was informed by the crises in the Zamfara state chapter of the PDP.

Nwaoboshi who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta, said his decision to resign from the PDP was due to the “implosion” within the party.

The lawmaker accused the leadership of the party of fostering tyranny, arbitrariness and intolerance.

The senate president who stopped midway while reading the defection letters as a result of interjections from PDP senators, jokingly remarked that more defections were underway.

“Distinguished Sen. Utazi, I know this is not easy, but you know we have to learn to live with it, because many more will be coming here,” Lawan said.