APC overtakes PDP as majority in House of Reps Category: News Published on Thursday, 15 January 2015 05:00 The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) seized the majority position from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives, Daily Trust heard in Abuja yesterday. The opposition has been making gains since late last year following a gale of defection of PDP lawmakers to the APC, the latest triggered by last month’s primaries in which a number of serving MPs lost their return tickets under the PDP. As at yesterday, the APC has 179 lawmakers to the PDP’s 162, while the Social Democratic Party (SDP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party and Accord Party all have a total of 19 members in the House. This is the second time the APC would be seizing the majority position from the PDP in a little over one year. In December 2013, 37 PDP Reps defected to the APC giving it the majority position which did not last long as APC lawmakers also defected to the PDP few weeks in early 2014. The defection of lawmakers in the House reached its peak on October 28 last year when Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal dumped the PDP for the APC. With the APC now in the majority, Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has further consolidated his position, our correspondent reports. When contacted, Tambuwal’s spokesman Malam Imam Imam said the new order in the House is “democracy at work.” Imam said it is not unusual in Nigeria’s democracy for lawmakers to defect to other political parties when elections are about to be held. Deputy Chairman of the House committee on Media and Publicity, Rep. Victor Ogene said they have been vindicated on the issue of position of the speaker since the APC is now in majority position. “Section 50 of the Constitution has clearly stated that members shall elect a speaker from among themselves and he must not come from the majority party,” Ogene said.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 09:04:55 +0000
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