Opinion: The Log In Akpabio’s Eye

The political future of opposition senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe, appears uncertain as controversy trails his recent defection in the Senate.
The Abia South lawmaker joined the wave of defections on Thursday, March 12, 2026, when he announced his move to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Abaribe was among nine senators who defected to the ADC on the same day. While he left APGA, the remaining eight senators abandoned either the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the Labour Party (LP), citing unresolved leadership crises within the two opposition parties as the reason for their decision.

However, the Senate leadership immediately raised objections to Abaribe’s defection, insisting that APGA had no internal crisis or division that could justify his departure under the provisions of the Constitution.
Unlike the cases of PDP and LP—where leadership disputes are widely acknowledged—Abaribe’s move quickly triggered constitutional arguments on the floor of the chamber.

Raising the first point of order, the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin, argued that the Abia South senator could not lawfully defect because there was no crisis within APGA to warrant such a move.

In response, Abaribe told the Senate that he had been expelled from APGA in September 2025, a development he said necessitated his decision to seek a new political platform in the ADC.

His explanation, however, appeared to provoke a strong reaction from the Senate’s leadership. The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, maintained that if Abaribe had indeed been expelled from APGA, he automatically lost the qualification required to remain in the Senate.

Bamidele cited Section 65(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which stipulates that anyone seeking election to the National Assembly must be a member of a political party and sponsored by that party.
According to him, once Abaribe was expelled by the party that sponsored his election, he ceased to meet that constitutional requirement.

The Senate Leader also relied on Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution, which provides that a member of the Senate or House of Representatives shall vacate his seat if he defects to another political party before the expiration of his tenure, except in cases where the defection results from a division or merger within the original party. Bamidele argued that since no such division existed within APGA, Abaribe’s seat should be declared vacant.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, also faulted Abaribe for failing to formally notify the Senate earlier that he had allegedly been expelled from APGA since September 2025.
Akpabio subsequently gave the Abia lawmaker until the next legislative sitting to present documentary evidence confirming his expulsion from the party.

He further directed Abaribe to withdraw his defection letter or risk having his seat declared vacant by the Senate.
Akpabio also rebuffed attempts by Senator Victor Umeh to defend Abaribe’s position, warning him against worsening the situation.

Umeh, who represents Anambra Central Senatorial District, was himself among the senators who defected to the ADC. He had been elected on the platform of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election.

A Case Of Double Standards?

The development has revived debate over the consistency of the Senate’s interpretation of constitutional provisions on defection. Akpabio himself was first elected to the Senate in 2015 on the platform of the PDP to represent Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, where he also served as Minority Leader.

However, in 2018, he defected from the PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), despite the absence of a widely recognised leadership crisis in the PDP at the time. Following his defection, an advocacy organisation, the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LDAP), instituted a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to have his seat declared vacant.

The group had relied on the same Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution now being invoked against Abaribe. In his defence, Akpabio argued that he had moved to the APC after being expelled by the PDP.

Delivering judgment, Justice Okon Abang held that Akpabio joined the APC following his expulsion from the PDP through a letter dated August 2, 2018.
The court ruled that having been expelled from the party that sponsored his election, he was free to join another political party of his choice.

Justice Abang further held that declaring Akpabio’s seat vacant would amount to punishing him for exercising his constitutional right to freedom of association under Section 40 of the Constitution. According to the court, Section 68(1)(g) did not apply because Akpabio “neither defected nor decamped” but only moved to another party following his expulsion.

The parallels between the two cases are difficult to ignore.
Abaribe says he moved to the ADC after being expelled from APGA. Akpabio moved to the APC after claiming expulsion from the PDP.

Yet the Senate President now appears prepared to invoke constitutional provisions to challenge the validity of Abaribe’s position. In principle, some constitutional analysts argue that both lawmakers ought to have lost their seats in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution.

But within the political theatre of the Nigerian Senate, the interpretation of rules sometimes appears flexible.
For critics, the unfolding dispute echoes the famous allegory in Animal Farm—that while all animals may be equal, some appear “more equal than others.” In this context, the unfolding drama suggests a familiar political paradox: the attempt to remove the speck in another’s eye while overlooking the log in one’s own.

Mr Gbade OGUNWALE is an Abuja based journalist