The Senate majority leader, Ahmad Lawan on Tuesday said the All Progressives Congress (APC) still has the majority in the upper legislative chamber contrary to reports in the media.
Lawan made the remarks while reacting to the defection of 15 members of the ruling party to other political parties on the floor of the Senate.
According to Lawan, APC has 52 lawmakers while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has 50.
He said, “It is with heavy heart that we have to watch our brothers and sisters in the APC caucus take the action they did. And we still are optimistic and confident that we will work with our leaders of the APC to bring back our colleagues who had gone.”
“The essence of this press briefing is to let you know that even though some of our colleagues have left, the APC remains the majority party in the Senate in terms of numbers. Out of the 109 senators, APC has 52, the PDP has 50, ADC has three and APGA has two. You will recall that we lost two of our colleagues. So we have two vacant seats and the total gives you 109.
“I want to assure you that by the grace of God, INEC will conduct the by-elections, the APC will win because these are our safest seats. In addition, we are still expecting some of our colleagues in the original PDP who have expressed willingness to join the APC.
“For our colleagues that have left, we are still optimistic that many of them or all of them will have a change of heart. APC remains the majority party in the Senate. I will not be speaking for the House of Reps but I want to tell you too that APC remains the majority party too in the house of representatives.
“In fact, one of the PDP senators was dismissed and expelled from the party. They could even be less than 50.”
The 52 names listed by Lawan listed…
Adamu Aliero
Yahaya Abdullahi
Bala Ibn Na’Allah
Aliyu Wammako
Ibrahim Gobir
Ahmed Yerima
Kabir Marafa
Tijjani Kaura
Abu Ibrahim
Umar Kurfi
Kabir Gaya
Barau Jibrin
Abdullahi Gumel
Sabo Mohammed
Shehu Sani
Ahmed Lawan
Bukar Abba
Ali Ndume
Abu Kyari
Baba Kaka Garbai
Sabi Abdullahi
David Umar
Mustapha Muhammed
Abdullahi Adamu
George Akume
Joshua Dariye
Francis Alimikhena
Andrew Uchendu
Magnus Abe
Ovie Omo-Agege
John Enoh
Nelson Effiong
Andy Uba
Sonni Ogbuoji
Hope Uzodinma
Ben Uwajimogu
Danjuma Goje
Binta Masi Garba
Ahmed Abubakar
Yusuf A. Yusuf
Oluremi Tinubu
Gbenga Ashafa
Solomon Adeola
Tayo Alasoadura
Gbolahan Dada
Soji Akanbi
Ajayi Boroffice
Abdulfatai Buhari
Babajide Omoworare
Sola Adeyeye
Fatimat Raji-Rasaki