A fresh wave of defections, on Thursday, swept through the House of Representatives, as 12 members announced their defections during plenary.

The defections saw some opposition members moving into the ruling All Progressive Party Congress (APC) and African Democratic Party (ADC).

The affected lawmakers defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), Young Progressives Party (YPP) and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).

In separate letters read by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, on the floor of the house, the lawmakers cited irreconcilable differences in their former parties as reasons for the defections.

James Barka, Laori Bitrus, Zakaria Nyampa and Kobis Thimnu, all representing different constituencies in Adamawa, defected from the PDP to the APC.

Also, Midala Balami (PDP-Borno) and Mohammed Bargaja (PDP-Sokoto) defected to the ruling party, while Afam Ogene (LP-Anambra), Peter Aniekwe (YPP-Anambra) and Lilian Orogbu (LP-Anambra) joined the ADC.

Two other lawmakers, Jessey Onakalusi (LP-Lagos) and Murphy Osaro (LP-Edo), equally quit the Labour Party for the ADC.

The deputy speaker also announced that eight other lawmakers had notified the House of their defections.

Mr Kalu listed their names to include Hassan Hussein (NNPP-Kano), Tijani Khali (NNPP-Kano), Muhammed Shehu (NNPP-Kano) and Uchenna Okonkwo (LP-Anambra).

He, however, said that the letters of the defecting lawmakers would be read when they were physically present at the plenary.

At Wednesday’s plenary, Garba Inuwa and Abdullahi El-Rasheed, both from Gombe, and Mohammed Audu (PDP-Taraba) defected to the APC.

While Joshua Obika (LP-FCT) also defected to the APC, his counterpart, Adewale Adebayo (PDP-Osun), joined the  Accord Party.

(NAN)