President of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmed Lawan has said “many more” senators from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will soon jump ship into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Lawan made the comments while reading defection letters of three senators of the PDP who tendered their defection letters before the Senate on Wednesday.

The three senators are Sahabi Ya’u (Zamfara North), Lawali Anka (Zamfara West), and Peter Nwaoboshi (Delta North). 

In their separate letters to the president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, the lawmakers attributed their resignation from the opposition to an internal crisis, tyranny and leadership failure within the party.  

The defection letter by the Deputy Minority Whip, Mr Ya’u read in parts, “The decision (defection) is necessitated by the endemic crisis that engulfed the Zamfara State chapter of the PDP which led the national body to dissolve the state exco of the party.”

On his part, Mr Anka who is the Deputy Chairman of Senate Services Committee, also said his defection was informed by the crises in the Zamfara state chapter of the PDP. 

Mr Nwaoboshi, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta, said his decision to resign from the PDP was due to the “implosion” within the party. 

The lawmaker accused the leadership of the party of fostering tyranny, arbitrariness and intolerance. 

The senate president who stopped midway while reading the defection letters as a result of interjections from PDP senators, jokingly remarked that more defections were underway. 

“Distinguished Senator Utazi, I know this is not easy, but you know we have to learn to live with it because many more will be coming here,” Mr Lawan said.