Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described the unprecedented waves of defections of opposition lawmakers to the ruling All Progressives Congress as a potent and attractive tool for anti-democratic forces to overthrow constitutional democracy.

“We are sounding a strong note of warning and a profound caution to Nigeria’s legislators to comply with the constitutional provisions on defections, stop the current political insanity represented by their unbridled cross-carpeting from their original parties into the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). This anti-constitutional practice by the politicians constitute a dangerous threat to Multiparty democracy, even as this politically sinister tendency of defecting from their parties to the ruling party could provide the needed motivation and elixir for coupists to attempt to torpedo democracy.

The rights group asserted that in a massive political shift on Wednesday, three senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) formally defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) during plenary at the Senate chamber, National Assembly, Abuja. Several of these current law makers in the 10th session of the National Assembly have similarly and shamelessly abandoned the political parties under which they won the mandates of the constituents to get to the National Assembly but have left halfway illegally into the ruling political party: APC.

The latest defection, which took place during a session presided over by the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, according to news report cited by HURIWA, involved Senator Akpan Ekong Samson (Akwa Ibom South), Senator Olubiyi Fadeyi (Osun Central), and Senator Francis Adenigba Fadahunsi (Osun East). Their letters of defection were read aloud by the Senate President during the session. Similarly, over half a dozen members of the Federal House of Representatives elected as PDP members jumped ship into the All Progressives Congress on this same day.

HURIWA in a statement signed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, condemned “this anti-constitutional and anti-democratic forces embedded in the National Assembly for flagrantly flouting the law with the hidden agenda to motivate ambitious people within the military to try to overthrow constitutional democracy.” The rights group condemned “this treachery against democracy just as it urged Nigerians to speak out in defence of pluralism and constitutionalism.” It noted that the law provides that those who defected from their political parties should lose their seats in the legislature.

HURIWA recalled that respected constitutional lawyer Femi Falana recently described the mass defection of lawmakers at the National Assembly as illegal, stressing that anyone willing to defect must first resign from the party that sponsored their election.

It further asserted that In the year 2022, a Federal High Court in Abuja sacked two members of the House of Representatives and 18 members of the Cross River State House of Assembly for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC.

“Regrettably,” said the rights group, “Nigeria’s three leading opposition parties—the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)—are riven by infighting, court cases, and leadership struggles. Their collective disarray has significantly weakened their capacity to serve as effective counterweights to the APC-dominated federal government.”

HURIWA decried “what is becoming a defining feature of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic politics, defections in the National Assembly,” which the rights group believes has continued to reshape the legislative landscape

Continuing, it said: “We recall that recently too, eight members of the House of Representatives announced their defection from the parties on whose platforms they were elected, re-engineering national conversations around the strategic stabilising factors of party loyalty and constitutional accountability. Among the defectors that left a few weeks back were 6 PDP House of Representatives lawmakers – Hon. Nicholas Mutu, Hon. Victor Nwokolo, Hon. Thomas Ereyitomi, Hon. Nnamdi Ezechi, Hon. Julius Pondi, and Hon. Ukodhiko Ajiroghene Jonathan from Delta State, who defected to APC and 2 legislators – Hon. Mark Obetta and Hon. Dennis Amadi Agbo from Enugu State, who defected from the Labour Party to the ruling PDP in the State, citing internal crisis and leadership disputes within their former parties.”

HURIWA expressed “disappointment because these defections raise critical constitutional questions. Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution clearly states that a lawmaker must vacate their seat if they defect without a valid justification, such as party division or merger. Yet, in practice, enforcement is rare. Lawmakers often blame factional crises as cover, and courts are slow or politically reluctant to rule on such cases.” It blamed what it calls “a well structured strategy of state capture by the President for the enabler that has weakened the judiciary and virtually made the judicial arms of government a direct affiliate of the executive arm of government which inevitably could imperil the sustenance of constitutional democracy.”

HURIWA recalled that at the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June 2023, the APC held 179 seats in the House of Representatives, while the PDP held 117. Following the wave of defections, court rulings and the replacement of deceased members, the APC has grown to 207 Members, while PDP’s numbers have declined to 92, further consolidating APC’s majority in the lower chamber.

HURIWA categorically accused these defecting legislators who are breaking the law wantonly, of working to undermine democracy because their direct affront to the provisions of the constitution is a direct invitation of a military coup which HURIWA describes as satanic and despicable.