Again, defection hits PDP as another national  assembly joins APC

By Attah Ede and Kamsi Anayo

Again, another member of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives, Amos Gwamna Magaji on Tuesday resigned his membership of the party and joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). 

He is the third member of the PDP to cross carpet to the APC since the inauguration of the 10th Assembly after Chris Nkwonta and Eriatheke Ibori-Suenu. 

Magaji, who represents Java/Zango Kataf Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, announced this during plenary on Tuesday.

He explained that his  decision to dump PDP for APC was based  on the unresolved crisis in the party right from the national to local levels. 

Opposing Magaji’s decision, Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, asked the Speaker to declare the seat of the Kaduna lawmakers vacant. 

Chinda however cited section 68(1g) of the Constitution, saying that members of the House were lawmakers not law breakers.

According to him,  while the law allows any member to leave  whose platform he was elected, it also provides the consequences associated with the action which include losing his seat. 

Chinda maintained that the lawmaker has not complied with the provisions of the law and should therefore be made to lose his seat. 

He is currently the Chairman, House Committee on Health Care Services, and was a two-time member of the House and Chairman of the Kaduna caucus in the House of Representatives. 

The lawmaker is also serving as Deputy Chairman of the House Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Restructuring of Government Agencies and Commissions looking into the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye report

He has in the  past served in the House committees on Defense, Reformation Institutions, Rules & Business, Christian Pilgrimage, Police Affairs, F.C.T Area Councils and represent Kaduna state in the House Committee on Constitution Review.