Barau Jibrin Cites Section 68(1)(g) Of Constitution, Abaribe Given Until Next Legislative Week To Withdraw Defection Letter Or Present Constitutional Grounds
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The senate on Thursday said it will review the legality of Enyinnaya Abaribe’s defection from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Abaribe, senator representing Abia south, was among the lawmakers who defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) during plenary on Thursday.
Barau Jibrin, deputy senate president, raised the issue, citing section 68(1)(g) of the constitution, which requires a lawmaker who defects from the party that sponsored their election to vacate their seat unless the move is caused by a division or merger within the party.
Barau said there is no evidence of a crisis within APGA to justify Abaribe’s defection.
“I discovered that there isn’t any division in APGA and there isn’t any in the Labour Party,” Barau said.
Adams Oshiomhole, senator representing Edo north, also said there is no crisis in APGA or the Labour Party (LP) and noted that both parties maintain functioning leadership structures.
“I know for a fact that APGA has one chairman and a national executive council that is not in court,” Oshiomhole said.
“There are no issues of division or crisis within the party.”
Oshiomhole, a former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), added that the leadership of the LP had been affirmed by the courts, noting that pending appeals do not nullify existing judgements.
He urged the senate to enforce constitutional provisions where necessary and warned against lawmakers defecting without valid grounds.
Opeyemi Bamidele, senate leader, said the matter is significant for Nigeria’s democracy and constitutional order and suggested that Abaribe should be given an opportunity to reconsider his defection letter before the issue is referred to the national assembly’s legal department.
“If he insists, we may have no choice but to invoke the relevant provisions of the Constitution,” Bamidele said.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the constitution empowers him to act without necessarily seeking court intervention and stressed that any decision must align with legal provisions.
Abaribe defended his defection and said he had been expelled from APGA in September 2025.
“I have been sacked from my party since September 2025, and I have the letter here,” the senator said.
“This section does not cover a situation where someone has been removed from their party.”
Abaribe added that senators must belong to a political party to retain their seats and argued that his move to ADC was lawful.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe may risk losing his seat in the Senate following strong resistance from lawmakers over his defection from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA to the African Democratic Congress, ADC.
The Senate warned that the Constitution provides that a lawmaker who defects from the political party that sponsored him to the National Assembly may lose his seat if there is no clear division within the party.
Consequently, the Senate has given Abaribe until the next legislative sitting to withdraw his defection letter or risk losing his seat.
The issue arose shortly after Abaribe’s letter of defection was read on the floor of the Senate.
In the letter, the Abia South lawmaker stated that his decision was in line with a collective resolve to rescue and deepen Nigeria’s democratic system.
However, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, argued that the alleged expulsion of Abaribe could itself raise another constitutional issue, noting that Section 68(1)(b) of the 1999 Constitution requires that a senator must belong to a political party.
According to him, if Abaribe had indeed been expelled since September 2025, it could imply that his seat had already become vacant.
In his response, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, said he did not yet have evidence confirming the senator’s expulsion.
Meanwhile, Senator Victor Umeh expressed dissatisfaction with the debate, recalling that several senators had defected in the past without similar objections.
He cited examples including Senator Pam Dachungyang, who defected from the Action Democratic Party, ADP to the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Senator Francis Ezenwa, who also left the Labour Party, despite no reported division in their parties at the time.
However, Umeh was cut short by the President of the Senate during the debate.
In his ruling, Akpabio gave Abaribe until the next legislative week to either withdraw his letter of defection or present convincing constitutional grounds for his action.
There are strong indications that if Abaribe successfully completes his defection, he could potentially emerge as the new Minority Leader in the Senate.
This follows ADC’s emergence as the leading minority party in the Senate as nine lawmakers formally defect from their respective political parties including five from PDP, three from LP, and one from APGA. By this, PDP that holds the Senate Minority Leader’s position with Abba Moro from Benue South now has only seven senators, with APGA, NDC, and NNPP having one each while LP and SDP no longer have members in Senate.
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