Three members of the House of Representatives from Katsina State have officially defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), citing persistent internal crises within the opposition party.
Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, read the notices of defection during Thursday’s plenary session. The lawmakers—Abdullahi Balarabe (Bakori/Danja), Abubakar Albaba Aliyu (Batasari/Safana/Dan-Musa), and Yusuf Majigiri (Mashi/Dutsi)—each cited various forms of instability and division within the PDP as the reason for their departure.
Abdullahi Balarabe described the PDP as engulfed in a “protracted crisis,”; while Abubakar Albaba Aliyu pointed to the party’s “lack of cohesiveness.”; Yusuf Majigiri added that the internal discord in the PDP had reached a “high level without cure.”;
The defections were witnessed by prominent political figures from Katsina, including Governor Dikko Radda and APC State Chairman Muhammad Ali, who attended the plenary to show support for the new entrants into the party.
This latest wave of defections adds to a growing trend in the House of Representatives. Over the past several months, lawmakers from the PDP, Labour Party, and even the Young Progressives Party (YPP) have switched party affiliations, mostly in favor of the APC, significantly shifting the political balance in the lower chamber.
