{"id":65948,"date":"2025-05-18T10:34:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T10:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=65948"},"modified":"2025-05-18T10:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T10:34:21","slug":"apc-gathers-steam-as-defections-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/18\/apc-gathers-steam-as-defections-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"APC Gathers Steam as Defections Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, says the growing number of defections into the All Progressives Congress is a clear sign that Nigerians are regaining trust in President Bola Tinubu\u2019s leadership and the ruling party\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a high-level APC North West stakeholders\u2019 meeting in Kaduna on Saturday, Abbas revealed that no fewer than 25 federal lawmakers from states like Kano, Osun, Kebbi, Delta and Edo have already pitched their tents with the APC.<\/p>\n<p>He also disclosed that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State and his predecessor, former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, have both defected to the APC, a move he described as a pointer to \u201cmany more heavyweight crossovers\u201d in the months ahead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are witnessing a wave of political realignments,\u201d Abbas said. \u201cThe APC is growing stronger because Nigerians are seeing results. Our recent win in the Edo State governorship poll with Senator Monday Okpebholo is proof.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Speaker credited internal reforms in the APC for the current momentum, saying the party has improved its democratic processes, revamped its candidate selection model and deepened its grassroots structures.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the APC has made strong political inroads in Zamfara, Sokoto, Rivers and Bayelsa States through effective alliances and restructuring.<\/p>\n<p>Highlighting the strategic importance of the North West, Abbas called for increased mobilisation in the zone which boasts over 22 million registered voters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis region holds the key to victory in 2027,\u201d he noted, while calling on party members to remain united and focused.<\/p>\n<p>The Speaker concluded with a charge to deepen youth and women engagement, pointing out that a vibrant grassroots strategy remains the backbone of the party\u2019s electoral success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, says the growing number of defections into the All Progressives Congress is a clear sign that Nigerians are regaining trust in President Bola Tinubu\u2019s leadership and the ruling party\u2019s direction. Speaking at a high-level APC North West stakeholders\u2019 meeting in Kaduna on Saturday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":65949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-65948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65950,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65948\/revisions\/65950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}