The honourable member representing Anambra East constituency in the State Assembly, Hon. Obinna Emeneka, has defected to APGA from PDP. Hon. Pharm. Emeneka who is serving his third term in the House, was the PDP’s candidate for Anambra East and West Federal Constituency in the just concluded 2023 General Election. Aside Hon. Obinna, only Hon. Beverly Ikpeazu-Nkemdiche is also concluding her third term of office in the 7th Assembly. However, for the incoming 8th Assembly, only Hon. Somto Udeze will be a third term lawmaker in the Assembly.
Earlier, during plenary on Tuesday, Hon. Obinna Emeneka’s letter of notice of resignation from PDP and defection to APGA to the House of Assembly, was read by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Uche Okafor under “personal explanation.”
Reacting to the development, the majority leader of the House, Hon. Pete Ibida, expressed happiness, thanking the lawmaker for taking the bold step of re-entry into APGA. “We thank you for making it a point of duty to come back to your family,” Ibida said. On his part, the minority leader of the House, Hon. Onyebuchi Offor, member representing Ekwusigo, apparently unhappy, wondered why Hon. Obinna’s defection back to APGA matters when his initial defection to PDP didn’t matter. However, he was quickly reminded that there was a letter from Hon. Obinna notifying of his defection to PDP. According to Hon. Emeneka in his response, “I am coming back to APGA to continue to support the administration of Soludo. When I defected to PDP, I did inform the House in a letter because this is a House of record. Today, I am also informing the House of my return to APGA in a letter,” he said.
The member representing Onitsha North II constituency, Hon. Edward Ibuzo, described Emeneka’s defection as a “good move”, while also projecting more defections in the incoming 8th Assembly. “I expect more of this decamping to happen in the 8th Assembly.”
Going forward however, the House could not proceed with the items on the plenary’s order paper following a motion moved by Hon. Noble Igwe citing Order 5, rule 2, of the House which brothers on quorum, and so proceedings could not continue because the House did not form quorum. Other things being equal, the House not able to form quorum is expected given that the life span of the current Assembly is now less than one month.
He is a Technical Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, whoonce was a Special Adviser to a former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. Ebuka is a second class upper division graduate of Political Science from University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science with specialization in Government and Development Studies, from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigeria
