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Major opposition parties in the country are expecting mass defections from the All Progressives Congress (APC) from April.
According to a report by The Sun, the defections will be fallout from primaries to be conducted across the 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, and 990 seats across the 36 State Houses of Assembly in the country.
With the elimination of indirect primaries from the new Electoral Act, lawmakers seeking return tickets are worried that their state governors will work against their emergence.
Already, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released a revised election timetable ahead of the 2027 polls, as well as the conduct of primaries by the various political parties.
The aforementioned publication gathered from some members of the state and national assemblies, who plan to return to the parliament, that recent defections by governors of the opposition to the ruling APC would pose serious threats to them.
The lawmakers, who do not want to be mentioned, said the governors who joined the APC were insisting on producing candidates ahead of the general elections next year, without any recourse to those they met in the party.
One of the lawmakers from Delta State told the publication that part of the negotiations and agreements reached by the governors with the APC and President Bola Tinubu was the freedom to allow them to handpick flag bearers for next year’s general elections.
He said some of the governors were unwilling to accommodate the APC members they met in the party when they defected, but insisted on bringing in fresh candidates, predominantly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said that, to avoid being caught unawares, the aggrieved members of the APC have opened talks with the PDP, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and the Labour Party (LP) to accommodate them and offer them return tickets to parliament.
“Governors control the structures of political parties in the states. Today, almost all the PDP governors have moved to the APC. They came with their own structures and allies. Unfortunately, the governors already reached agreements with the leadership of the APC and President Tinubu to allow them produce candidates for next year’s general elections.
“Some of us know that we will not get the tickets. Our only option is to open negotiations with the PDP, ADC and LP. Hopefully, we will use our popularity to campaign and hope that we win our re-elections next year,” one of the lawmakers revealed.
Determined to reduce the mass defections, the APC is planning to conduct its National and State Houses of Assembly primaries towards the close of the window permitted by INEC.
A source in the APC said if the plan scales through, aspirants who will be denied tickets will be unable to defect and secure tickets from the opposition parties before the end of May this year.
