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.
