APC cements majority status in Edo Assembly as another lawmaker dumps PDP

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Nicholas Asonsere defected to the state’s ruling party on Wednesday, bringing the total number of All Progressives Congress, or APC, members in the Edo State House of Assembly to 15.

Nicholas Asonsere, who represents the Ikpoba Okha seat in the House, was elected on the PDP platform, according to the ZINGTIE.

Along with his followers, Asonsere, a vocal member of the House PDP, defected.

The PDP had 15 lawmakers elected on its ticket in the 2023 state legislature election, the APC had 8, and the Labour Party had one.

A PDP lawmaker representing Ovia Southwest constituency, Destiny Enabulele, was removed by the Court of Appeal after Sunday Aghedo was proclaimed the winner.

According to the ruling of the Appeal Court, there are now only 14 PDP members in the House.

The number of APC lawmakers rose to 15 after the defection of the sole member of the House of Representatives from the Labour Party and four additional PDP lawmakers.

To change the Speaker and Deputy Speaker or any other key officer in the House, the APC needs 16 members to form a two-thirds majority.

Notes that the PDP now holds the seats of Minority Leader and Minority Whip in the House, while members of the party have already taken on the roles of Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, and Chief Whip.

After receiving the APC’s emblem, the broom, from Jarret Tenebe, the party’s State Acting Chairman, Nicholas Asonsere stated he was inspired to join the party due to developmental strides of Governor Monday Okpebholo-led administration in his constituency.

He could not be on the fence when the governor was building a flyover bridge and other people-oriented infrastructure in his constituency, according to Asonsere, who called his defection “self-conditioned.”

He claimed that in order to be among people who support his development programs and policies, he personally called the governor to inform him of his plan to join the APC.

“When I was a child, I reasoned like a child. When I was a boy, I reasoned like a boy, but now that I am a man, I should reason like a man. Therefore, it is pertinent that the labourer deserves his wages.

“I am here on self-conditioned, that is what I told the Governor last night. I am the one that called the governor, that I want to join APC.

“Somebody cannot be developing my immediate constituency, constructing a flyover bridge there and I will be on the left-hand side while he is on the right-hand side. That means I am not ready to develop the constituency and the people I am representing.

“So, I need to join my hands, to encourage and speak out to our people so that we give him the needed support to enable him (governor) to finish what he has started in my constituency.

“Because of the developmental strides the governor is doing in the shortest time he has been in office that convinced me to join APC,” he said.

Jarret Tenebe, the State Acting Chairman of the APC, stated in his remarks that the Ikpoba Okha lawmaker’s defection to the party was another turning point in Edo State’s political history.

According to Tenebe, the lawmaker’s decision to leave his party and join the APC is a new political tsunami that has rocked the PDP to its core.

“This is not just any defection; it is the departure of a political son of two of the PDP’s leading figures in Edo South, the Deputy Governorship candidate, Barrister Osarodion Ogie, and the campaign Director-General, Hon Mathew Iduoriyekemwen. What clearer sign do we need that the PDP is collapsing under the weight of its own failures.

“The defection of Hon Nicholas Asonsere epitomizes the March towards sending the PDP into political oblivion in Edo State. He was a key voice that once gave relevance to the PDP in their heydays.

“Today, he has chosen to align with the future. We thank him for his resolve and determination to join our dynamic governor in making Edo the envy of all”, he added.

However, Tenebe advised the state’s PDP members to take the olive branch that Governor Okpebholo handed to them, pointing out that everyone’s cooperation and participation are necessary for the state’s growth.

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