Following gale of defections of Senators from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to opposition parties, the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Wednesday, stormed the National Assembly for an emergency meeting with lawmakers.
Adamu at the meeting, begged aggrieved APC Senators who lost out in their bids for the party’s ticket ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Sources at the meeting informed the Blueprint that Adamu told the aggrieved Senators that APC has genuine plans for them as all their grievances arising from party primaries would be addressed.
It would be recalled that party primaries sprang up several controversies leading to many lawmakers who wanted to return to the Senate losing party tickets.
The source at the meeting disclosed further that lawmakers used the opportunity of Senator Adamu’s visit to express their grievances over alleged lack of internal democracy at states’ level of the party.
Addressing newmen after the meeting, APC National Chairman said he was worried about the gale of defections of his members to opposition parties.
“It is an unfortunate development when it happens but this is a season for all manner of behaviour in the political space in the country and Nigeria is not an exception.
“In every election year this kind of movement here and there for electoral ticket, usually cause stakeholders within the affected party, to sneeze.
“Nigeria is not an exception and the APC is not an exception. So I don’t give a damn what is happening in other parties, I care about what is happening in our party. You and I know that it is not just APC that this thing is happening.
“Because we are the ruling party, yes our problems are more prominent in the public glare,” he said.
He however described the defection as unfortunate promising that the party leadership will address the cause.
“No responsible leader would not worry losing one member not to talk of two, three. At the moment, we are faced with the stack reality of their problems but we are committed with my colleagues in the National Working Committee to face the problems squarely to see if the problems are solvable to solve them by the grace of God,” he said.
APC that had membership strength of about 70 before primaries of last month, is reduced to 62 Senators now, PDP 39, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) 3, Young Progressives Party (YPP ) 2, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) 1 and Labour Party 1 .
