Categories: FeaturedPolitics

Nigeria: 22 More APC Senators Planning to Defect to PDP, Fani-Kayode Warns

Except there is a quick intervention, 22 All Progressives Congress senators might leave the party soon for the PDP, a chieftain of the APC and former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, alerted.

In a post on his verified Twitter handle, on Wednesday, Fani-Kayode claimed the senators were threatening to defect to the PDP, because they had been denied the tickets to return to the Senate.

“This is serious and something must be done to prevent it. Many are concerned and we urge our able Nat. Chairman and the National Secretary to reach them. We cannot afford to lose them,” Fani-Kayode tweeted.

When THISDAY contacted him on what informed his Tweet, Fani-Kayode said the lawmakers were very unhappy and had concluded plans to defect en masse soon.

He said this was why he raised the alarm so that those concerned in the party hierarchy might try to save the situation before it gets out of hand.

Fani-Kayode claimed the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and National Secretary of the party, Iyiola Omisore, and himself had started to engaged with some of the senators.

Aduda: PDP May Soon Form Majority in Senate

Meanwhile the new Senate Minority Leader, Philip Aduda, boasted that PDP might soon form the majority in the Senate, with the number of senators defecting to his party.

Aduda stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja. He said as the new Minority Leader, there would surely be challenges, expressing hope, however, that those challenges would be surmounted.

He stated, “There are a lot of challenges as 2023 approaches; we will manage them. This is the season you have aggrieved members from all sides, various defection by those who are aggrieved and those who got their parties’ tickets. I can assure you that we will ensure we give meaningful leadership to the minority in the Senate.”

Speaking on the support that Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), was getting from some PDP members, Aduda said he wasn’t perturbed.

Aduda said, “Make no mistake about it, grassroots politics is different from Internet politics. You can have a lot of followership on the Internet but when you go to the grassroots, it is not so.

“The hype is not what is in the grassroots. It doesn’t matter if Peter Obi is gathering followership, because in politics, we lose some and gain some.”