A member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives, Amos Gwamna Magaji, has defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Magaji, who represents Jaba/Zango Kataf Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, said he was leaving the PDP as a result of unresolved crisis in the party right from the national to local levels.
The lawmaker, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Health Care Services, is a two-time member of the House and Chairman of the Kaduna caucus in the House of Representatives.
He is also Deputy Chairman of the House Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Restructuring of Government Agencies and Commissions looking into the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye report
He has also served in the House committees on Defense, Reformation Institutions, Rules & Business, Christian Pilgrimage, Police Affairs, F.C.T Area Councils and represent Kaduna state in the House Committee on Constitution Review.
Magaji is the third member of the PDP defecting to the APC since the inauguration of the 10th Assembly after Chris Nkwonta and Eriatheke Ibori-Suenu.
Objecting to Magaji’s defection, Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, asked the Speaker to declare the seat of the Kaduna lawmaker vacant.
Citing section 68(1g) of the Constitution, Chinda said members of the House were lawmakers not law breakers, stressing that while the law allow any member to leave the party on whose platform he was elected, it also spelt out the consequences associated with the action which include losing his seat.
He said the lawmaker has not complied with the provisions of the law and should therefore be made to lose his seat.
