There was drama today in the National Assembly as the Senate President, David Mark stopped some senators from moving from the ruling party to the All Progressives Congress (APC). It all started when Senator Bukola Saraki from Kwara State stood up to speak on behalf of the senators in question. Quoting a section of the constitution he challenged the Senate President's decision not to read out the defection letters when the senators had the right to move to another party of their choice.
The Senate President ruled him out of order since the matter was still in court. Senator Mark said he would make no further comments on the matter. Following this declaration by the Senate President, the senators who had be eager to cross-carpet from the PDP to the APC stood up one after the other the declare openly that they had decamped to the APC. But this was to no effect as the Senate President again ruled them out of other saying that he wasn't opposed to their decision but they must meet all the requirements that are layed down before their defection can be given a backing by the Senate.
Meanwhile, the People's Democratic party has regained its majority in the lower house following the defection of 5 APC reps to the PDP, with one lawmaker moving to the opposite direction. As it stands, the PDP has 178 members in the House of Representatives as against the APC's 168 members.
The APC through it's National Publicity Secretary has accused the ruling party of bribing members with state funds to woo them back to the party, describing the move as dangerous.
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