Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele has justified the defection of all federal lawmakers from Kebbi State to the All Progressives Congress (APC), noting that the ruling party “is now running a government of national unity.
Bamidele, representing Ekiti Central in the upper chamber, noted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not coerce any member of the opposition political parties to defect to the APC contrary to public criticism.
He made this clarification at the Senate Chamber, National Assembly Complex, Abuja on Tuesday when all federal lawmakers from Kebbi State formally their defected to the APC.
The defection was witnessed by the APC National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje; Governor of Kebbi State, Alhaji Nasir Idris and APC National Organizing Secretary, Alhaji Sulaiman Argungu, among others.
Senator Adamu Aliero, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, Senator Garba Maidoki and all members of the House of Representatives had at the weekend informed President Tinubu of their decision to join the ruling party at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Consequently, all the federal lawmakers from the Northwest state formally announced their defection from the PDP to the APC at the Senate Chamber, Abuja yesterday in the presence of the party’s key national leaders.
After their announcement on Tuesday, Bamidele defended the defection of the federal lawmakers to the APC, noting that their decision was based on the overriding public interest and had nothing to do with turning Nigeria into a one-party state.
He added, “The ruling party will not close our doors to anyone intending to join the party. In the same way, we will not also discriminate against anyone either on the basis of religion, tribe or any other factor.
Our doors will continue to be open for more people to join at all levels.“In the meantime, we will continue to work with the members of the minority political parties. It is not by sheer coincidence that virtually all political parties from the Young Progressives Party (YPP) to the Peoples Democratic Party have to join the ruling APC.
“Even APGA, which has not joined the ruling party, has also graciously nominated and donated a minister of state to the Federal Government of Nigeria under the APC administration. That is to say what we now are running is a government of national unity,” he said.
Bamidele commended the defectors for their decision to join the ruling APC while reflecting on how the PDP was coercing members of the opposition parties to defect to its fold when it was in government at the federal level.
He said, “We were all in this country when PDP was the ruling party. We saw all the things that happened under the PDP in an attempt to get more states, more seats in the Senate and more seats in the House of Representatives.
We are not at the polls. No one is being coerced.“If anyone is coerced, definitely the person is not Senator Adamu Aliero. All of us know that the person cannot be Senator Yahaya Abdullahi that will be co-opted. Neither will Senator Garba Maidoki with a stint in the private sector before he ventured into politics will defect to APC without clear conviction.
They are not all in politics so that they can feed themselves and families.“As far as we are concerned, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi that I know will rather stay in opposition and be very loud. They all recognise that this is not the time for grandstanding. This is the time for all of us to work together to take Nigeria to the next level.’’
