Two members of the House of Representatives, Ephraim Nwuzi and David Abel, defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressives Congress on Wednesday October 7.
This was disclosed by the speaker of the house, Femi Gbajabiamila during the plenary when he read separate letters from Nwuzi who represents Etche/Omuma Federal Constituency in Rivers State, and Abel who represents Gashaka/Kurmi/Sardauna Federal Constituency in Taraba State, announcing their defections.
There was uproar in the house caused by the defection as the Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu; Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu; and leader of the PDP caucus, Kingsley Chinda, separately raised constitutional points of order.
They requested that the speaker, Gbajabiamila should declare their seats vacant as there were no crises in the PDP in the defecting lawmakers’ respective states.
The Speaker, however, described leaders of the opposition as hypocrites, recalling that as Minority Leader in the previous Assemblies he also protested against defections to the PDP but his arguments were dismissed.
Gbajabiamila noted that the PDP failed to lay the foundation of sanctioning illegal defections while in power.
“Like you used to tell me, your points are noted. Any more defections?”Gbajabiamila responded.