Two members of the House of Representatives, Hon. Zaphaniah Bitrus Jisalo representing AMAC/Bwari Federal constituency in the FCT and Hon.Yusuf Ahmed Tijjani representing Okene/Ogori-Magogo Federal constituency in Kogi State have defected from the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) citing internal division within their former party.

The Speaker Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara (APC: Bauchi) officially announced their defection at the House plenary of Wednesday, 5 October 2017. Both members were elected on the platform of the PDP and this drew criticism from some PDP members such as the deputy minority leader, Hon. Danjuma Barde (PDP:Kaduna).
Reacting to the announcement, Hon. Barde raised a Point of Order asking for the defected members to vacate their seat in accordance with section 68 of the Constitution. He also disagreed that there was a division in the party. Following which the House erupted into a rowdy session. The Speaker intervened to diffuse the situation and ruled that the Constitution did not specify the type of party division that justified a defection. He also stated that the Courts were the best medium to rule on the issue.

It is important to note that Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution provides that  “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if –being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored;”

This defection increases the total majority of APC lawmakers in the House of Representatives to stand at 227 while leaving the number of PDP lawmakers at 123.