President Muhammadu Buhari has told some aggrieved Senators that the spate of defection going on at the National Assembly is a threat to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The Party has recently lost 13 Senate seats to the opposition parties, with the APC left with 67 seats while other political parties have 43from which the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP controls 39.

The aggrieved Senators, numbering about 22, had pledged to defect from the party over the outcome of primaries in their state ahead of the 2023 general elections.

If the decision materializes, the APC will be left with a minority 45 seats while the PDP will likely control 61 member majority.

Leader of the delegation and the former Governor of Abia State, Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu, said the lawmakers felt disenfranchised by the process.

Speaking at the meeting, President Buhari urged the Senators to exercise restraint in their decision to defect from the party.

After the meeting, Kalu said the aggrieved Senators would no longer pursue defection from the APC.

“Earlier this afternoon, I led the 22 aggrieved Senators and members of the All Progressive Congress to President Muhammad Buhari, GCFR,” Kalu, the Chief Whip of the ninth senate, said in a statement.

“Our meeting with Mr President was successful and the issue of decamping from our party has been laid to rest.”

A number of the APC senators had cross-carpeted to other parties due to their failure to secure a return ticket to the NASS with many of them alleging that their states’ governors hijacked the senatorial primary elections.

In the past week since the resumption of the plenary, not less than seven senators have sent their defection letters to the Senate President.

They include the Majority Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi representing Kebbi North senatorial district, who defected to the PDP.

Abdullahi alleged that the democratic challenges and deficits in Kebbi State did not just start from the last congresses, but from July last year “when the governor illegally decapitated the state leadership of the party, imposed unelected ward, local government and state executives of the party.”

He stated in his defection letter to the Senate, “At a point, I thought of resort to the courts, but decided against that course of action after realising that political challenges require political solutions in the democratic arena where it is the people and not the judges who are the final arbiters.

“I came to this decision after a very hard struggle with my conscience and emotions. It is either to remain on the side of my people or to selfishly look the other way.

“I have, therefore, decided to pitch my tent with the Peoples Democratic Party to join forces with my compatriots at home who are struggling against incompetence, imposition and violation of democratic norms, principles and practices.”

Also former governor of Kebbi State, Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central), defected from the ruling APC to the PDP stating that his “predicated on the fact that there is no internal democracy in the APC.”

He alleged that the state’s governor, Atiku Bagudu, had “bastardised, the party and electoral processes in the state which are now characterised by high-handedness and unfairness.”

Similarly, Senators Ahmad Babba-Kaita (Katsina North), Lawal Gumau (Bauchi South), and Francis Alimikhena (Edo North) have also announced their defection from the ruling party.