Fear Of Losing Their Seats Scares Aggrieved APC Senators From Defecting

• As ruling Party raises the red flag

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The fear of losing their present seats at the National Assembly has gripped 22 aggrieved Senators of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who initially threatened defection to other political parties following their rejection by delegates at the party’s primaries.

This is as the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led the national leadership dared the Senators elected on the APC platform to consider the implication of losing their seats should they defect to any other political party ahead of the 2023 general election.

The aggrieved senator are those who lost their return tickets at the party primaries after being roundly defeated by other party faithful, thereby shutting them out of their desires to contest the 2023 general elections with the hope of retaining their seats at the National Assembly.

President Muhammadu Buhari last week met with the 22 Senators during which he appealed to them to exercise restraints and not toy with the idea of defection from the ruling party, saying that the leadership of the APC will ensure adequate hearing and healing process that would guarantee fairness, justice and oneness before the 2023 general election.

Buhari particularly told the senators that machinery had been put in place by the national leadership of the party towards addressing their concerns.

Similarly, the National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, also met with the aggrieved senators behind closed doors at the National Assembly, saying that he was not sure if the challenge of defection would persist thus, expressed optimism the issue was surmountable.

Checks by Forefront News indicated that the Senate leadership also met with the aggrieved Senators urging them to put the interest of the party over and above all grievances and considerations.

It was further gathered that the APC Principal Officers of the Senate took time to enumerate the implications of their defection may have on the Party and declared not to allow such a development happen ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Information pieced together further indicate that the aggrieved Senators are in a quagmire as to the direction to take following their political calculations which does not in any way look bright even in the leading opposition party, owing palpable fears that the PDP may not be able to properly accommodate their interest as a result of encumbrances of the Electoral Act 2022.

They are also not sure if the PDP will emerge victorious in the 2023 general elections.

Already, the PDP has pointedly told some of the aggrieved APC Senators who approached the party that it was not in a position to offer them tickets having failed to secure same from their party owing to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 which stipulates stringent conditions for defectors replacing candidates.

A source at the PDP National Secretariat told Forefront News that it was a polite way of turning down the request of the APC aggrieved Senators, saying that most of them do not command any significant followers that they are laying claims to thus were rejected by the people.

The next two weeks would actually determine the position of the aggrieved 22 APC senators who are likely to either remain in the party and lick their wounds or at best wait for the outcome of the 2023 general elections to start lobbying for different positions which may not be automatic as the governors are most likely to going to play a major role in determining who gets what and where.