The All Progressives Grand Alliance in Abia State has categorically denied that Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, representing Abia South Senatorial District, was ever expelled from the party, accusing the senator of lying on the floor of the Senate to justify his defection to the African Democratic Congress and revealing what it described as a secret plot by Abaribe to recruit individuals to forge a fake expulsion letter to cover his tracks.
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The controversy erupted last week when Senator Abaribe joined eight other senators in announcing their defection to the ADC during Senate plenary. However, when it was Abaribe’s turn, Senate President Godswill Akpabio questioned why he was leaving APGA when there was no visible crisis in the party — a constitutional requirement for cross-carpeting under Nigerian law.
Abaribe responded that he took the decision because he was sacked by his party. The Senate leadership subsequently gave him until the next plenary session to produce evidence of his expulsion from APGA.
Speaking with Daily Sun, APGA Abia State Chairman Chief Sunday Onukwubiri firmly stated that Abaribe was never expelled from the party at any point. He explained that the party only suspended the senator for what it described as serious anti-party activities, and that the suspension was never converted into an expulsion.
“We never expelled Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe. There are certain offences a party member will commit that you expel him. What we did was suspending him. Suspension is constitutional and there is also constitutional provision for expulsion. Suspension is a sort of cautioning a member for doing what is not good, then if he continues on that, further actions will be taken on that person,” Onukwubiri stated.
Onukwubiri revealed that the suspension was triggered by what APGA described as persistent anti-party activities by Abaribe. He disclosed that the secretary of another political party had appeared on a radio station in Umuahia and publicly declared that Abaribe was not only a member of their party but a leader.
The APGA chairman said the party gave Abaribe a 24-hour ultimatum to refute the claims, which was subsequently extended to 48 hours. When the senator failed to respond, the party invoked the relevant section of its constitution and suspended him.
This account is consistent with what Onukwubiri told Daily Post in September 2025 when the suspension was first announced. At the time, Onukwubiri had confirmed: “You cannot be a member of APGA and at the same time you go and become a leader of ADC, that is an insult to my party. First of all, we gave him 24 hours to refute the claim that he is the leader of ADC. He neither responded nor called us to make explanations.”
The news of the suspension in September 2025 had been broken by Peter Nduka, APGA State Secretary in Abia, after a State Executive Council meeting.
Onukwubiri revealed that after three months of the suspension, in December 2025, Abaribe submitted a letter of resignation from APGA to the Ahiaba Ward 5 Chairman of Obingwa Local Government Area.
The APGA chairman posed a pointed question: “Let me ask Nigerians this question — if the party expelled him as he wants his fellow senators and Nigerians to believe, why did he come back to write a letter of resignation? If any person is expelled from any association, has he the right again to write a resignation letter?”
He challenged the Senate to verify the facts, saying: “If the Senate is in doubt, they can call the national leadership of our party for clarification because they have the letter of our suspension and his letter of resignation. Three months after his suspension, he resigned.”
Onukwubiri challenged Abaribe to produce both the suspension letter he received in September 2025 and a copy of his resignation letter, insisting that they would expose the truth.
In a more alarming development, APGA’s Abia chapter said it had uncovered a secret move by Senator Abaribe to recruit individuals who are no longer members of the party — people who had either been suspended or had resigned — to fabricate a fake and illegal letter purporting to show that he was expelled from APGA in September 2025.
A statement signed by Chukwuemeka Nwokoro, Publicity Secretary of APGA in Abia, warned that anyone who participates in such an act would face the consequences.
“It has come to the notice of APGA leadership in Abia State that Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has started secret movements trying to recruit people who are no longer members of the party, people who were either suspended from the party or resigned their membership of the party, to come together and raise for him a fake and illegal letter purported to have sacked him in September 2025,” the statement read.
“This move is to cover the lies he told the Senate with the intention of deceiving Senate members to accept his unconstitutional defection to another party knowing fully well that APGA has no element of crisis in all facets of the party’s leadership, which is the only basis for defection.”
Onukwubiri himself was unequivocal on the matter: “Senate gave him one week to produce letter of his expulsion. I stand to tell you that any letter gotten about his expulsion is fake.”
When asked whether APGA would consider issuing an expulsion letter retroactively to save Abaribe’s situation, the chairman shot back: “Who will give him that expulsion letter? He dare not come to me, and if he goes to any other person, he will be committing another offence.”
Onukwubiri disclosed that a week before the Senate defection drama, based on Abaribe’s resignation letter and the absence of any crisis in APGA, the party had held a press conference in Aba demanding that the senator vacate his seat since the mandate belongs to the party under the Constitution.
The APGA chairman extended the same demand to Honourable Mascot Ikwuechegh, who represents Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and also defected from APGA, moving to the Labour Party.
“This is a constitutional issue. What we are saying is that there is no crisis in our party that will warrant them to leave to another party. The two chambers of the National Assembly should deal with both Senator Abaribe and Honourable Ikwuechegh as the law demands — they should vacate their seats,” Onukwubiri stated.
He expressed frustration that Abaribe, as the most senior APGA officeholder from Abia, had allegedly neglected his responsibilities to the party.
“This is a man that rode on APGA’s crest to the National Assembly and has not for once, for over two years, called any party meeting. As I speak with you, even before he was suspended, our party does not have an office in his ward, local government, or at the senatorial district level, yet we still accorded him the respect as the leader of the party,” Onukwubiri lamented.
When contacted, Senator Abaribe’s media aide, Uchenna Awom, forwarded documents that were essentially the letter suspending the senator from the party — notably, not an expulsion letter.
This response appeared to inadvertently support APGA’s claim that Abaribe was only suspended and never expelled, as the documents produced by his own media team showed a suspension, not an expulsion or sack.
It is worth recalling that when Abaribe was first suspended in September 2025, his media aide had declined to comment, saying only: “Until the time comes. For now, there is nothing to say.”
The controversy has significant constitutional implications. Under Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution, a member of the National Assembly shall vacate his seat if, being a person whose election was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which the legislature was elected, provided that his membership of the former party was not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member, or a merger of two or more political parties.
If APGA can demonstrate that there is no crisis or division within the party, as it insists, Abaribe’s defection would be unconstitutional and he would be required to vacate his Senate seat. The senator’s claim of having been expelled would, if proven true, provide him an alternative legal basis for leaving the party. However, APGA’s categorical denial of any expulsion, coupled with the existence of a resignation letter dated December 2025, appears to undermine that claim significantly.
The Senate is expected to revisit the matter at its next plenary session, when Abaribe is expected to present evidence of his alleged expulsion from APGA.
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