Amos Gwamna Magaji, a previous member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives, has switched to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Jaba/Zango Kataf Federal Constituency in Kaduna State is represented by Magaji, who announced his intention to leave the PDP due to unresolved issues within the party at both the national and local levels.
A two-term member of the House, the congressman is also the chairman of the House of Representatives’ Kaduna caucus and the chairman of the House Committee on Health Care Services.
In addition to serving in the House committees on defense, reformation institutions, rules and business, Christian pilgrimage, police affairs, F.C.T. Area Councils, and the House Committee on Constitution Review, Magaji is the third member of the PDP to defect to the APC since the 10th Assembly’s inauguration, following Chris Nkwonta and Eriatheke Ibori-Suenu.
He is also the Deputy Chairman of the House Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Restructuring of Government Agencies and Commissions, which is investigating the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye report.
Minority leader Kingsley Chinda objected to Magaji’s defection and asked the Speaker to declare the Kaduna lawmakers’ seat vacant, citing section 68(1g) of the Constitution to support his claim that members of the House were lawmakers and not lawbreakers.
Chinda emphasized that although the law permitted any member to leave the party on whose platform he was elected, it also outlined the consequences of doing so, including losing his seat, and that since the lawmaker had not complied with the law, he should be forced to resign.