House of Representatives Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, has slammed his members who defected from the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to other parties during Tuesday’s plenary, saying they are bereft of political ideology.
37 members dumped the APC, with 32 of them leaving for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, another four from Oyo State for African Democratic Congress (ADC) while Chairman House Rule and Business Committee, Emmanuel Oker-Jev, is yet to announce where he is headed.
The Reps defected on a day 15 senators dumped the APC for the PDP.
Following the defections in the House, Gbajabiamila stormed the House of Representatives press centre with large number of of his APC colleagues.
He had described the defector lawmakers as politicians without ideology.
He said majority of the defectors switched parties in order to secure return tickets.
Gbajabiamila said that the public is now accustomed to the four year political circle, during which politicians seek for survival by moving to parties that will hand them tickets.
He commended members of the Caucus who kept faith with the ruling party, adding that PDP needed 60 members to defect to take over as the majority party, but only 33 members joined the party.
Gbajabiamila said: “Let me say it is always sad when people lose one member, those members were part of the family and I would say very quickly, they are also welcome at any point in time they realize the error of their ways.
“But let me also say that I want to commend the remaining members of the APC in the house who have remained steadfast, who have remained committed to the party, for me that is what politics is all about, particularly in a representative democracy where people elect you on a particular platform for a particular reason.
‘We are all aware of the Supreme Court decision in Ameachi’s case, where the Supreme Court said and made it abundantly cleared that it is not the person that is elected, it is the party that people elect.
“We tried to build politics of ideology in this country and that is why I commend our members who have remained to the ideology of this party, if ideology was in drench, we would not see the way people cross Carpet in this country today, in advance democracy, hardly do you here about such a thing so I commend our members for remaining in the section.
“But unfortunately, that section has already been interpreted by the supreme court of Nigeria. In the case of PDP versus Adekunle who was a member of the House of Representatives and the meaning of division has been clearly stated by the supreme court and the so call R-APC that everybody is chanting, those not fall within the interpretation of the Supreme Court, therefore we would be encouraging the party to take the necessary steps not because we are against the members, but so that we can further entrench democracy. When people elect you to represent you on a particular platform, that seat does not belong to you, the seat belongs to the constituency, so it is important that this position is stated clearly, and that we put it to rest.
“I want to say that inspite of the movement of about 36 members, 4 went to ADC in Oyo State and 32 to PDP and I believe there was one resignation thereafter without a party as of yet, I want Nigerians to know that not only does APC remain the majority of the House, APC is actually a clear majority in the House. I believe those who wanted to defect were expecting about 60 members but they got half, 32 which leaves APC over and beyond what is required of a majority.
“Let me very quickly on behalf of our members congratulate the President, the Party Chairman, the Party Leaders and the Party for remaining committed to the welfare of this country, for piloting this country inspite of everything, the grassroots, the people who we represent through the various programmes of the party and Mr. President, the various intervention that remains unspoken. This people have remained committed and have proven in the last election of Ekiti.
“I want to say once again that on behalf of all the APC members of the House of Representatives we would continue to do the biding of the people, we would continue to do the biding of the country in spite of whatever shenanigans that may be going on in the country.”
Also speaking at another forum, the APC national Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole said: “Some members of the Senate and House of Representatives that left our party for opposition parties are “mercenaries” who were in APC just to win elections.”
He said the APC is “not disturbed at all” and “we are not losing sleep over the defections. It is good that those who never believed in the APC are leaving ahead the electioneering activities because that would enable the party concentrate on its campaigns.”
Remnants of Reps addressing the media after the defections on Tuesday.