More details are emerging on the mass defections that rocked the National Assembly months ago which saw an exodus of members from the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).
A member of the House of Representatives have given an insight on how the horse tradings that culminated into the defection took place.
Honourable Bode Ayorinde, representing Owo/Ose Federal Constituency of Ondo state at the National Assembly, made the revelation on how the former APC members dumped the party for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to Sahara Reporters, Ayorinde spoke on Tuesday, December 11 at a stakeholders meeting and flag-off ceremony for his campaign in Owo area of the state.
According to the lawmaker, series of meetings planned by the duo of Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, were held at different locations in Abuja where they perfected their defection from APC to PDP.
Speaking on the moves that led to the defection of the lawmakers, Ayorinde said: “We held a series of meetings on how to move this country forward since the ‘Change’ agenda that the APC-led government promised the people of this country seems to be a total scam and nothing is working.
“Senate President Bukola Saraki chaired the meeting; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara was there, as well as the governor of Sokoto state, Aminu Tambuwal and many other former senators. They felt the need to change the man in government, who is not making things work perfectly.
“Later, they called about 34 of us at the House of Representatives to come into the meeting where a group was formed, while they also called on 15 rebel senators to join us. We held no less than 59 meetings, planning and strategising on our breaking away from the ruling APC. We all contemplated on whether to form a new party or join an existing one.”
The Ondo Federal Lawmaker, who is also the candidate of the PDP for the constituency, said three political parties – Social Democratic Party (SDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – were suggested to them during their meetings.
He continued: “We called on the leaders of these political parties to come and talk to us on how they can develop the country if we moved en masse into their fold. It was Professor Adeniran who led those from SDP to come and convince us that we should defect to their party while talks were ongoing. It was Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola who led those from the camp of the ADC, and he begged us to join because it is Baba Obasanjo’s political party and that if we join, we can join them to move Nigeria forward.
“And for the PDP, it was the national chairman of the umbrella party, Mr. Uche Secondus, who led the team of about 20 people to convince us about the PDP. We now sat down and looked into the strengths of these parties, then we asked them what they would do for us if we joined them.”
According to Ayorinde, the federal lawmakers decided to form the R-APC within the ruling party, when they were still strategising on their next move from APC to PDP.
“We later got back to the National Assembly and we gave ourselves a name, which is the Reformed-APC. I was the chairman of the House of Representatives, while Senator Dino Melaye was chairman of the Senate. While others in the group were still afraid to announce their defection, I was the first person to announce my exit from the APC to the PDP on the floor of the National Assembly.
“After our announcement, we traveled to our constituencies to register as bonafide members of PDP, and we were all accepted into the umbrella party with the aim of winning the election for our presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,” he added.
In a related development, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has announced the defection of a serving House of Representative member from the ruling APC to its fold.
The defected lawmaker according to a statement issued by SDP national publicity secretary, Malam Mohammed Alfa, is Honourable Salisu Koko representing Maiyama/koko-Besse federal constituency, in Kebbi state.
Alfa said that the development brought the number of lawmakers who had defected to SDP in less than two weeks from APC to two.
