The speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Collins Chiji has dumped the People’s Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress.
He was joined by the majority of the House, Chigozie Nwaneri and six other lawmakers, who equally joined the ruling APC from the PDP.
Their defection brings the number of the APC lawmakers to 18 out of the 26 as Uju Onwudiwe(Action Alliance) of Njaba, who was returned elected during the last Saturday’s supplementary election, was yet to be inaugurated by the speaker.
The speaker announced his defection and that of his seven other colleagues during a plenary on Tuesday.
The plenary which lasted for 15 minutes came to an end after the speaker announced the names of the defected lawmakers.
Apart from the speaker, Uche Ogbuagu(Ikeduru), Dominic Ezerioha ( Oru west) Chigozie Nwaneri(Oru East), Kanayo Onyemaechi (Owerri west), Kennedy Ibe( Obowo) Onyemaechi Njoku( Ihitte /Uboma) and Eddy Obinna( Aboh Mbaise) equally defected.
Obinna represents Emeka Ihedioha’s constituency.
Ihedioha was sacked as the governor of the state by the supreme court on January 14.
