Senate to review legality of Abaribe’s defection from APGA to ADC

The senate on Thursday said it will review the legality ofEnyinnaya Abaribe’s defection from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)to the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Abaribe, senator representing Abia south, was among thelawmakers who defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) during plenaryon Thursday. Barau Jibrin, deputy senate president, raised the issue,citing section 68(1)(g) of the constitution, which requires a lawmaker whodefects from the party that sponsored their election to vacate their seatunless the move is caused by a division or merger within the party. Barau said there is no evidence of a crisis within APGA tojustify Abaribe’s defection. “I discovered that there isn’t any division in APGA andthere isn’t any in the Labour Party,” Barau said. Adams Oshiomhole, senator representing Edo north, also saidthere is no crisis in APGA or the Labour Party (LP) and noted that both partiesmaintain functioning leadership structures. “I know for a fact that APGA has one chairman and a nationalexecutive council that is not in court,” Oshiomhole said. “There are no issues of division or crisis within theparty.” Oshiomhole, a former national chairman of the AllProgressives Congress (APC), added that the leadership of the LP had beenaffirmed by the courts, noting that pending appeals do not nullify existingjudgements. He urged the senate to enforce constitutional provisionswhere necessary and warned against lawmakers defecting without valid grounds. Opeyemi Bamidele, senate leader, said the matter issignificant for Nigeria’s democracy and constitutional order and suggested thatAbaribe should be given an opportunity to reconsider his defection letterbefore the issue is referred to the national assembly’s legal department. “If he insists, we may have no choice but to invoke therelevant provisions of the Constitution,” Bamidele said. Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the constitutionempowers him to act without necessarily seeking court intervention and stressedthat any decision must align with legal provisions. Abaribe defended his defection and said he had been expelledfrom APGA in September 2025. “I have been sacked from my party since September 2025, andI have the letter here,” the senator said. “This section does not cover a situation where someone hasbeen removed from their party.” Abaribe added that senators must belong to a political partyto retain their seats and argued that his move to ADC was lawful.

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