APC knocks off PDP in House of Representatives, won 214 House of Reps’ seats to control 8th House of Reps of 360 seats
The All
Progressives Congress will firmly be in control of the 8th House of
Representatives as the majority party with over 214 members.
There are a total
of 360 seats in the second chamber of the National Assembly.
Figures emerging
from the outcome of the March 28 National Assembly poll, show that APC members
are now 214, against the Peoples Democratic Party, which has 125 lawmakers.
The statistics
gives a gap of 89 between the APC and the PDP in favour of the former.
The figures, obtained
on Tuesday, exclude the 11 federal constituency seats in Jigawa State, where
election has yet to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral
Commission.
When elections for
the 11 seats are conducted, the APC will possibly get additional seats, meaning
that its numerical strength in the House may be well above 214 at inauguration
on June 6.
Three other
political parties, Labour Party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Accord
Party, share the balance of 10 seats, bringing the total to 360.
The distribution
of the figures shows that the APC has the highest membership haul from the
North-West with 81 lawmakers, as against the PDP’s zero score for now.
It is followed by
the South-West, where it won 47 seats compared to the PDP’s 20.
In the
North-Central, the party got 41 seats and left eight for the PDP.
The APC’s
performance in the North-East was 40 as against the seven seats won by the PDP.
The PDP’s
strongest zone is the South-South, where it produced 52 members, compared to
the APC’s three. The three seats came from Edo State.
The current
majority party won 38 seats in the South-East, leaving only three for the APC
in Imo State.
A further
breakdown indicates that the APC did not win any seat in Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu
and Abia states.
Same goes for the
South-South states of Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers and Bayelsa, where
it did not produce any lawmaker.
However, the APC
took all the seats in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi in the
North-West.
In its second
strongest zone (South-West), it got 19 seats out of 24 in Lagos; 12 in Oyo
State; seven in Osun; five in Ondo and four in Ogun.
The PDP cleared
all the six seats in Ekiti State.
In the
North-Central axis, APC won all seats in Kogi, Kwara and Niger states. It won
eight out of 11 in Benue; six out of eight in Plateau; and two out of five in
Nasarawa State.
Similarly, it
amassed all the seats in Bauchi and Borno states.
But, in Adamawa,
the APC has seven, the PDP (one); Gombe, the APC has four, PDP (two); Taraba,
APC two, PDP (three); and Yobe, APC five, PDP (one).
At the
inauguration of the 7th Assembly on June 6, 2011, the PDP was in clear majority
with around 208 lawmakers. The defunct Action Congress of Nigeria had about 70
members, followed by the then Congress for Progressive Change, which had around
40 lawmakers.
Following the
historic merger in 2013 between the ACN, CPC and the All Nigerian Peoples Party
to form the APC, the PDP began rapidly to lose its control of the House.
In December of the
same year, 37 PDP members moved in one day to the APC. More defections followed
in the run up to the last elections.
It was capped on
October 28, 2014, with the defection of the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, a PDP
lawmaker, to the APC.
By the time the
two parties went for the March 28 polls, the APC’s membership in the House had
risen to above 180, while the PDP fell to between 158 and 160.
The outcome of the
polls further confirmed the APC’s control of the House and positioned it to
produce the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Majority Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy
Majority Leader of the in-coming 8th Assembly.
This will turn the
table against the PDP, now demoted to minority or the main opposition party.
Commenting on the
turn of events on Tuesday, the outgoing Deputy Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor,
described it as “democracy at play,” though he assured Nigerians that the PDP
would bounce back.
APC knocks off PDP in House of Representatives, won 214 House of Reps’ seats to control 8th House of Reps of 360 seats
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
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