APC wins 214 House of Reps’ seats

The All Progressives Congress will
firmly be in control of the 8th House
of Representatives as the majority
party with over 214 members.
There are a total of 360 seats in the
second chamber of the National
Assembly.
Figures emerging from the
outcome of the March 28 National
Assembly poll, show that APC
members are now 214, against the
Peoples Democratic Party, which
has 125 lawmakers.
The statistics gives a gap of 89
between the APC and the PDP in
favour of the former.
The figures, which The PUNCH
obtained on Tuesday, exclude the
11 federal constituency seats in
Jigawa State, where election has
yet to be conducted by the
Independent National Electoral
Commission.
When elections for the 11 seats are
conducted, the APC will possibly
get additional seats, meaning that
its numerical strength in the House
may be well above 214 at
inauguration on June 6.
Three other political parties, Labour
Party, the All Progressives Grand
Alliance and Accord Party, share the
balance of 10 seats, bringing the
total to 360.
The distribution of the figures
shows that the APC has the highest
membership haul from the North-
West with 81 lawmakers, as against
the PDP’s zero score for now.
It is followed by the South-West,
where it won 47 seats compared to
the PDP’s 20.
In the North-Central, the party got
41 seats and left eight for the PDP.
The APC’s performance in the
North-East was 40 as against the
seven seats won by the PDP.
The PDP’s strongest zone is the
South-South, where it produced 52
members, compared to the APC’s
three. The three seats came from
Edo State.
The current majority party won 38
seats in the South-East, leaving
only three for the APC in Imo State.
A further breakdown indicates that
the APC did not win any seat in
Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu and Abia
states.
Same goes for the South-South
states of Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom,
Cross Rivers and Bayelsa, where it
did not produce any lawmaker.
However, the APC took all the seats
in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara,
Sokoto and Kebbi in the North-
West.
In its second strongest zone
(South-West), it got 19 seats out of
24 in Lagos; 12 in Oyo State; seven
in Osun; five in Ondo and four in
Ogun.
The PDP cleared all the six seats in
Ekiti State.
In the North-Central axis, APC won
all seats in Kogi, Kwara and Niger
states. It won eight out of 11 in
Benue; six out of eight in Plateau;
and two out of five in Nasarawa
State.
Similarly, it amassed all the seats in
Bauchi and Borno states.
But, in Adamawa, the APC has seven,
the PDP (one); Gombe, the APC has
four, PDP (two); Taraba, APC two,
PDP (three); and Yobe, APC five,
PDP (one).
At the inauguration of the 7th
Assembly on June 6, 2011, the PDP
was in clear majority with around
208 lawmakers. The defunct Action
Congress of Nigeria had about 70
members, followed by the then
Congress for Progressive Change,
which had around 40 lawmakers.
Following the historic merger in
2013 between the ACN, CPC and the
All Nigerian Peoples Party to form
the APC, the PDP began rapidly to
lose its control of the House.
In December of the same year, 37
PDP members moved in one day to
the APC. More defections followed
in the run up to the last elections.
It was capped on October 28, 2014,
with the defection of the Speaker,
Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, a PDP
lawmaker, to the APC.
By the time the two parties went
for the March 28 polls, the APC’s
membership in the House had risen
to above 180, while the PDP fell to
between 158 and 160.
The outcome of the polls further
confirmed the APC’s control of the
House and positioned it to produce
the Speaker, Deputy Speaker,
Majority Leader, Chief Whip and
Deputy Majority Leader of the in-
coming 8th Assembly.
This will turn the table against the
PDP, now demoted to minority or
the main opposition party.
Commenting on the turn of events
on Tuesday, the outgoing Deputy
Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor,
described it as “democracy at play,”
though he assured Nigerians that
the PDP would bounce back.