Garba Koko, a member of the House of Representatives has defected from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC).
Koko represents Besse/Maiyama Yema federal constituency of Kebbi state in the house.
Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house announced his defection in a letter read on the floor of the lower house of assembly on Wednesday.
Koko gave his reason for dumping PDP as the “prolonged and protracted” crisis in the party.
Kingsley Chinda, the minority leader however countered him, saying there is no protracted crisis in PDP.
He said, “It is important to correct the erroneous impression. There is no protracted problem in PDP.”
Chinda added that all political parties including All Progressive Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) experience internal disagreement.
He asked the speaker to declare the seat of the defected lawmaker vacant in line with section 68 of the 1999 constitution which outlines the conditions under which a member can lose their seat.
He said, “The house should implement the constitution by declaring the seat vacant. Let us not continue to set a bad precedent.”
Responding, Abbas said only the court has the power to declare it.
The defection comes about 24 hours after Amos Magaji from Kaduna announced his defection from the PDP to the APC.
Chris Nkwonta, representing Ukwa East/Ukwa West federal constituency of Abia state, defected from PDP to APC on October 2.
On October 30, Sulaiman Abubakar, representing Gummi/Bukkuyum federal constituency of Zamfara, left the PDP for APC.
Also on December 5, four LP members and one PDP lawmaker in the lower chamber defected to APC.
