Five N’Assembly members defect to ANPP in Kogi

Posted by admin Kogi, Legislature, State News Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

AT least five members of the National Assembly, including two senators and three members of the House of Representatives, have defected from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to the All Nigeria’s Peoples Party in Kogi State.

A former governor of the state from 1999 to 2003, Alhaji Audu Abubakar, gave the hint on Monday night while speaking with journalists on his decision to join the governorship contest in the state.

Audu also announced a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dino Melaye, as his campaign director.

At the briefing addressed jointly by him and the lawmaker, Audu said that the defection of the federal lawmakers to the ANPP showed that people were changing their political affiliations in the state in favour of the ANPP.

Among some of the lawmakers present during the briefing were Dino Melaye; the Senator representing Kogi Central, Alhaji Otaru Salihu-OHize and the member representing the Okene/Adavi Federal Constituency, Mr. Abdul Salihu.

Audu said he was forced to join the governorship race as a result of pressure from stakeholders who insisted that he had to return to governance to rescue the state from bad governance, infrastructural decay and a looming anarchy.

He submitted that Kogi, which he said was rated the best performing state by the Jerry Gana-led media tour of the country between 1999 and 2003, had been marked by a sharp deterioration in the standard of living and decay in infrastructure.wp_posts