Nigeria's Ruling Party Faces Further Defections
Eleven lawmakers from Nigeria's ruling party on Wednesday gave formal notice of their intention to defect to the main opposition, in a fresh blow to President Goodluck Jonathan.
The members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) -- all of them senators in the upper chamber of parliament -- announced their decision in a letter to the Senate leader, David Mark.
"We the undersigned Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria elected under the platform of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) wish to notify you that we have severally and jointly joined the All Progressives Congress (APC)," the letter stated.
"This action and decision is as a result of the division and factionalization" in the ruling party.
The letter, a copy of which was emailed to Agence France Presse by the opposition, features the names of 16 senators in total but only carries 11 signatures.
All but two of the 11 senators are Muslim politicians from northern states.
The exceptions are Christians from the oil-producing Rivers state in the south, whose high-profile governor, Rotimi Amaechi, is locked in a tense stand-off with Jonathan.
One of the signatories, Rivers Southeast senator Magnus Abe, has claimed he was shot as police broke up a recent pro-Amaechi rally.
APC spokesman Lai Mohammed said the letter, dated January 20, was delivered to Mark on Wednesday afternoon and was due to have been read on the floor of the Senate.
That is now expected to happen when the legislature resumes on Thursday morning.
"This is only the first installment of many other Senators of the Peoples Democratic Party expected to defect to the All Progressives Congress soon," added Mohammed.
Once confirmed, the new configuration will cut the ruling party's majority in the 109-seat Senate by 26 seats, with the PDP down from 73 to 62 and the APC up from 33 to 44.
On December 19 last year, 37 PDP lawmakers in the lower chamber House of Representatives announced that they had joined the APC, which stripped the ruling party of its majority.
Their defection followed a switch in allegiance by five influential state governors the previous month, in part over Jonathan's apparent plans for re-election in 2015.
He has yet to declare his candidacy but is thought to want a second term, flouting an unwritten party rule to rotate the candidacy between the mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south.
Jonathan, who stepped up from vice-president to be acting head of state when former president Umaru Yar'Adua fell ill and later died in 2010, is a southern Christian.
He is also alleged to have promised to serve only one, four-year term after winning a popular mandate at the last elections in 2011.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and biggest oil producer, is scheduled to hold presidential and legislative elections on February 14 next year.
