The rapid defection of some Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) members in the House of Representatives, to the ruling All Progressives Party, (APC), has been attributed to the imminent fear of losing their tickets to contest elections in 2019.
Sources in the House, close to the defecting lawmakers told INDEPENDENT that this was the smart and only option opened to the legislators, considering their level of alleged insubordination to the authorities of the PDP.
The source, which preferred anonymity, pointed out that those that defected have realised that they would not get the PDP tickets to contest in the 2019 elections.
The source further pointed out that most of the defecting lawmakers were aggrieved PDP members in the camp of Ali Modu Sheriff, who was recently sacked by the Supreme Court as Chairman of the party.
It said, consequent upon the sack, the inability of Sheriff and some members of his camp to resign to the will of the party and show subordination, was already a clear signal to the lawmakers that their future ambition may not receive the blessings of the party and its top leaders.
The source also pointed out that all those that defected to the APC, already belonged to states with APC as the ruling party, where they stood at advantage to be properly integrated into the system as serving lawmakers, which gave the impetus for their grandstanding.
It said that the APC Governors in the defecting lawmakers states, the APC national secretariat and the leadership of the House allegedly reached out to these aggrieved legislators wooing them with 2019 tickets.
The source stressed that most of the lawmakers were actually waiting to see the outcome of the PDP National Convention, whether their favourites would emerge as Chairman and key National Working Committee (NWC) members, which would give them the hope to remain.
However, it said, when the convention result turned out the way it came, these legislators were now left with no other option than to relocate to where they would be accommodated.
Although the lawmakers in that camp of Ali Modu Sheriff were not in their large numbers in the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the House from the APC, Femi Gbajabiamila, has boasted that they would receive more defecting PDP members in the House of Representatives, having received Raphael Nnana Igbokwe, formerly Imo PDP, on Tuesday, and the newly defecting lawmaker, Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma formerly Edo PDP, on Thursday.
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