The All Progressives Congress (APC) friday described an alleged attempt to frustrate the defection of eleven Senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to its fold as an exercise in futility, insisting that the defection was Irreversible.

This is coming on the heels of reports that former vice president, Atiku Abubakar may declare for the APC any moment from now; just as all elected officials in the 16 local government areas of Kwara State Friday defected to the APC from the PDP.

However, the new National Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu'azu remains upbeat as he continues his reconciliation efforts by visiting former military president Ibrahim Babangida in Minna, Niger State.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu had on Thursday delayed reading the letter submitted by the 11 defecting PDP Senators with the excuse that it would be addressed when the President of the Senate, David Mark returns next Tuesday.

But the interim National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Muhammed declared friday that nothing could reverse the defection and accused the leadership of the Senate of “attempting to play the PDP card by seeking to procure another court injunction that will frustrate the defection of its members to APC.”

Muhammed continued: “The truth of the matter is that the letter was submitted at 10 am on Wednesday and in law, the notification is enough to effect defection.

"So, if they are going around looking for injunction they are wasting their time; no court will issue an injunction for an event that has passed. The eleven Senators have defected the moment the letter was submitted to the Senate. Whether he reads it or not, does not stop their defection."

The APC spokesman alleged that the PDP had earlier secured an injunction in order to prevent APC from effecting a change in the leadership of the House of Representatives “and is doing the same thing at the Senate.”

" You see, they are acting in self denial. They do not want Nigerians to know that their number is depleting by the day, " he said.

The eleven senators that tendered their notification to join APC included Bukola Saraki (Kwara) Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West), Umaru Dahiru (Sokoto South), Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), Shaba Lafiagi (Kwara North), Aisha Alhassan (Taraba North) and Magnus Abe (Rivers South-east).

Others are Ali Ndume (Borno South), Bindowo Jubrilla (Adamawa North), Wilson Ake (Rivers West) and Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East).

It also emerged yesterday night that former vice president Atiku Abubakar may defect to the opposition APC any moment from now.

THISDAY gathered that the declaration would either take place in Yola or Abuja.
The planned declaration was the outcome of Atiku’s nationwide consultative meeting with his political associates across the country.

The last leg of the regional meetings took place in Bauchi State yesterday and saw associates and stakeholders of the former vice president from his own zone (North-east) overwhelmingly rejecting the PDP and picking the APC as a preferred political platform.

Majority of the speakers at the Zaranda Hotel venue of the meeting, having appraised the political situation in the country voted for the former Vice President to defect to the APC.

When the matter was put to a vote, as was done in previous meetings, the APC enjoyed 88 per cent support as against 10 per cent for the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and the PDP trailing in third place with only 2 per cent of the votes.

Atiku had in his opening remarks informed his associates and stakeholders that the consultations was prompted by the visit of the leadership of the APC and the invitation extended to him to join them.

“You are the foot soldiers who will get the votes. You are central in our political process and that is why I have to come and consult with you in helping me to take perhaps the most difficult decision of my political life," Atiku said.

Meanwhile, all the 16 local government council chairmen in Kwara State yesterday unanimously defected to the APC from the PDP.

All the vice chairmen, councillors and supervisory councillors in the 16 local government councils also joined their chairmen to defect to the APC.

Addressing journalists in Ilorin yesterday, one of the chairmen, Mr. Abdullateef Okandeji said that the decision to defect was influenced by “the internal wrangling that has continued to affect the growth of the PDP in the country.”

It would be recalled that 22 out of the 24 lawmakers in the state’s house of assembly recently dumped the PDP for APC.

Despite the gale of defections, the new National Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu'azu remains undaunted as he continued his reconciliation efforts yesterday by visiting former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida in Minna, Niger State. He also visited Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu.

Mu'azu arrived the Minna residence of the former military leader at about 12:05pm and had a meeting with him till about 1:05pm with his 15 man entourage.

At the end of the meeting, neither General Babangida nor the party chairman was willing to speak to Journalists. Babangda simply said: "I am not going to say a word. I am not talking."

The PDP national chairman after some pressure said he was in Minna as part of his reconciliatory moves, to enable him carry out his job efficiently.

"I am here in continuation with my visit to our elders and I had a fruitful meeting with the former President. It was a fruitful meeting. What we discussed is not meant for public consumption. All I can say is that we had a fruitful discussion," he said.

Mua’zu's reconciliation train later moved to governor Aliyu's residence for another meeting.