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In an unusual
twist, the ruling People’s Democratic Party, which used to be the
favourite destination of politicians jumping ships at the Senate,
yesterday lost three of its members to the rank of the opposition.

Two of the
defecting senators, Adego Eferakeya from Delta State and Joel Danlami
from Taraba State moved to the growing Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN), while the third, Umar Argungu from Kebbi State joined the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) whose membership is expanding,
especially in the northern part of the country. Wednesday’s exodus
brings the number of senators who have left the PDP to four in the last
one month, a record high in the history of the Senate.

In a letter to the
Senate President, David Mark, the three lawmakers blamed their decision
to resign their membership of the PDP on the divisions within the party
in their various states, and the likelihood of their political
ambitions being truncated if they remained in such a party.

This movement
brings the number of ACN senators in the senate to seven and raised the
population of senators in the opposition to 14, although this is hardly
enough to alter the direction of any bill even if they all voted in a
plenary.

The senators had
concluded the ceremonies for their defections in their home states, yet
the formal change of seats by the senators at the floor of the Senate
was filled with emotions and revealed the turmoil within the ruling
party.

As Mr Mark read out
their letters of resignation from the party, one after the other, their
former PDP colleagues struggled to either keep them back or, failing
that, make them forfeit their seats.

Some of the
lawmakers lamented the inability of the PDP to resolve its internal
disputes and called on the senate president to intervene.

“I wish to draw the
attention of the (PDP) national headquarters to do something because
the rate at which the crossing away from the party is becoming
alarming,” Jubril Aminu, a ranking senator and party stalwart from
Adamawa State said.

All the PDP
senators who had left for the opposition blamed the inability of the
party to resolve internal crisis as their reason for leaving. Still,
the opposition had, over the last one year, lost eight senators to the
PDP. They include Uche Chukwumerije of Abia State, whom the Senate
President described as a “big catch.”

Trouble in the party

Mr Danlami who was
the first to cross the aisle on Wednesday, is considered a big fish in
his home state of Taraba. He intends to contest the governorship
election in his state in 2011 against the incumbent, and he described
his former party as a party in tatters in his state. The Taraba PDP has
long being engulfed in crises, leading to series of protests to the
party headquarters in Abuja and court cases in the state.

Mr Eferakeya, a
professor of pharmacology, is teaming up with Ovie Omo- Agege, a former
PDP gubernatorial candidate in Delta State who led about 10,000 members
of the party into the ACN a fortnight ago. He also blamed the crises
rocking the party in Delta State for his decision to dump the PDP.
Although he is not considered a political heavy weight in his state,
Mr. Eferakeya is believed to control a large bloc of followers.

Like Ehigie
Uzamere, (Edo State) who was the first PDP senator to decamp to ACN,
Mr.Argungu is also jumping over to the CPC perhaps because of the
growing popularity of the party in his state.

“I don’t understand
how you will leave the known to the unknown,” Mr Mark said, while
accepting his letter of defection. Mr. Argungu explained that PDP was
dead in his state.

Within the coming
weeks, more senators in the ranks of PDP are expected to join the
opposition as their chances of getting tickets for the 2011 elections
grow slim. Despite the worries expressed by the PDP senators, party
officials claim the defections will not affect the national strength of
the party.

Unconstitutional move

The 1999
constitution prohibits the carpet crossing of serving legislators in
section 68 sub-section 1 (g) where it stated that unless there is a
merger of political parties or division or even factions in a political
party, no serving legislator may cross over to another party.

The constitution,
in the same section, also provides that if any legislator contravenes
the provisions, he or she will be required to give up his seat in the
chamber. Perhaps in order to circumvent this, all the senators
defecting claimed there was trouble within the party in their states.

Mr Mark, in
accepting the defections, said he trusted the integrity of the
defecting senators. This was the same line he had used when there was
mass movement of opposition senators into the PDP side in the Senate.

In the past, each
time this crossing of the carpet took place in the Senate chamber,
Olorunnimbe Mamora (AC Lagos State), who is the deputy minority leader
of the Senate always objected, saying the PDP was benefitting from
illegality. But Mr. Mamora’s voice was always too weak to stop the
process, though yesterday he did not raise any objections to the
defections.

During the first
amendment to the 1999 constitution, the lawmakers attempted to amend
this section but their efforts were thwarted by legislators at the
state houses of assemblies who refused to vote for the deletion of the
section.