PDP’s senatorial capacity dwindles as Ebonyi Senator, ex-minister, 13 others dump PDP for APC

*Further defection hits PDP as Akpabio dumbs party this week

*APC senatorial capacity now on the increase

*How Saraki, Ekweremadu abuse ruling-opposition control opportunity

Mr. Wale Ogunyemi of Concerned Citizens Group said in Lagos Saturday night that, “Ordinarily it should have been opportunity for the ruling party to see itself on the toes when it knows that opposition also has almost equal powers of oversight in the National Assembly to check its activities.  But unfortunately, the PDP elements in the APC family, I mean Bukola Saraki, now working with members of the party he claimed to have left since 2014, have abused it.  Just look at every opportunity we have had to enjoy good checks and balancing in governance, these guys have abused.  So, it doesn’t work in Nigeria yet.  Let the APC which has the Government take it all.  Only then Nigeria can enjoy the Buhari’s government the more,” he said.

The Senator representing Ebonyi South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Chief Sonni Ogbuoji, a former Minister of State for Power and Steel, Mr. Goddy Ogbaga and 13 others on Saturday defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The defectors announced their defections during a rally organised by the state chapter of the APC in honour of President Muhammadu Buhari and the party’s National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Addressing the defectors and other party members at the rally held in Abakaliki, the state capital, Oshiomhole commended Ogbuoji and other defectors for what he described as their bold initiative to leave the PDP for the APC.

He stated that the Federal Government was committed and focussed in tackling the numerous challenges confronting the country.

He said, “We now have an elected senator, Chief Sonni Ogbuoji, who has decided that the PDP’s umbrella is shredded that it can no longer protect any one. He has now joined the progressives.

“He has watched the determination of the APC-led Federal Government to flush out all crises inflicted on the country by the immediate past administration of the PDP.”

Oshiomhole added that the Federal Government had embarked on execution of numerous projects in the South-East including the Onitsha/Enugu highway and the 2nd Niger Bridge among others.

He also urged party supporters to obtain their Permanent Voter Cards, saying it was the weapon for the actualisation of total victory of the APC in the 2019 general elections.

Earlier in his speech, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, noted that the people of Ebonyi State had resolved to align themselves with the APC and would vote for Buhari in 2019.

He said, “If the elections are conducted today in Ebonyi State, the APC will clinch all the elective offices at the wards, local government and state levels.’’

The minister urged South-East geopolitical zone comprising Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Anambra and Enugu states to embrace the APC and be in the mainstream of the country’s politics.

Some of the other defectors were a former Ebonyi State Attorney General, Augustine Nwankwegu and a former Secretary to the Ebonyi State Government, Prof. Bernard Odoh.

Speakers at the event included ex-governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, the immediate past governor of Ebonyi State, Chief Martin Elechi and the APC National Vice-Chairman South-East zone, Chief Emma Eneukwu.

With the new defection hitting the Senate, the PDP’s senatorial strength on which Senate President Bukola Saraki rests to fight the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government has remarkably dwindled, particularly as Senate Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio will formally leave the party in matter of days from now.

When an opposition party member in Ike Ekweremadu emerged as Deputy Senate President in June 2015, many stakeholders in the nation’s politics applauded saying it was good for democracy.

Three years after, it has dawn on those stakeholders and other watchers of events as they now see that Nigerian politicians are not ripe for situation where opposition like PDP enjoys equal powers of control in the legislature as, from what has played out, it has been abused for personal reasons of occupiers of those offices.

Mr. Wale Ogunyemi of Concerned Citizens Group said in Lagos Saturday night that, “Ordinarily it should have been opportunity for the ruling party to see itself on the toes when it knows that opposition also has almost equal powers oversight in the National Assembly to check its activities.  But unfortunately, the PDP elements in the APC family, I mean Bukola Saraki now working with members of the party he claimed to have left since 2014, have abused it.  Just look at every opportunity we have had to enjoy good checks and balancing in governance, these guys have abused.  So, it doesn’t work in Nigeria yet.  Let the APC which has the Government take it all.  Only then Nigeria can enjoy the Buhari’s government the more,” he said.