The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbass, has been asked to produce records of proceedings in the Green Chamber to show that a letter announcing Kingsley Chinda’s defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC, and resignation as Minority Leader, was read on the floor of the House. 

The request was made by the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, who recently filed a lawsuit asking an Abuja Federal High Court to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from recognising Chinda as a governorship candidate of the APC.

Chinda, an ally of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, minister, Nyesom Wike, emerged the governorship candidate of the APC in the May 21, 2026, primary election, following the last-minute withdrawal of other contestants – incumbent Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Tonye Cole and Alabo Dakorinama George-Kelly.

However, the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, whose members include indigenes of Chinda’s Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency of Rivers State, approached an Abuja Federal High Court seeking to stop him from taking part in the 2027 poll.

The plaintiff argued that the lawmaker’s defection was inconsistent with the provisions of Section 68 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, and pronouncements of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the defection of legislators.

To back up the claim that Chinda’s defection did not follow due process, the plaintiff has requested the Speaker of the House of Representatives to produce evidence that a letter notifying the House of the development was read on the floor during plenary. 

The request was made via a letter, dated May 26, 2027, signed by Jesse Williams Amuga, Esq., Administrative Secretary,

Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners.

The letter read: “Request brought pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 2011: Request for the Hansard and Votes of Proceedings and Order Paper of each day of plenary sessions of the House of Representatives, National Assembly, during the month of March and April, 2026, or any other date to ascertain whether the records can confirm the date on which the Rt. Hon. Speaker or any other presiding officer of the House of Representatives read the official letter of resignation of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda to confirm cessation of his membership of the PDP and also to confirm his resignation as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, National Assembly.

“We write on behalf of some of the 500,000 registered constituents of Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency, currently represented by Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda.

“We write to request a formal letter of response to the above-named subject-matter. 

“This letter that we are requesting is a condition precedent under Section 68 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 which we seek to tender as Exhibit in a lawsuit.

“We, as lawyers representing the constituents, previously wrote a letter expressing the intentions of the said constituents. A copy of the said letter dated October 2025, to the said legislator, is enclosed/attached.”

The letter was copied to the Deputy Speaker, as well as the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Following the lawsuit filed against Chinda’s candidacy in the 2027 election, a group, the Centre for Constitutional Governance and Electoral Integrity, CCGEI, had, in a statement, declared that the Rivers lawmaker had already resigned as Minority Leader of the House of Representatives before participating in the APC governorship process and had not taken part in any PDP-related activities since then.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Osa Director, says the party has put measures in place to prevent aspirants from riding on Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso’s popularity to power.

The director made this known on Thursday in an interview on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’.

According to him, unlike what happened in 2023, the opposition party will be thorough in the screening of aspirants.

“We have learnt from the incident of the past that happened in the Labour Party, and that was why, during our screening, we took particular special notice of the fact that a lot of people, especially people from the diaspora who have never participated in politics, rushed to get a form under the platform of the NDC. 

“As you have said, [they did so] probably to ride on the Obi-Kwankwaso wave and also because they see that the NDC is a vibrant alternative platform to the mess we’re having in the country today, and we are conscious of all that.

“Even during the screening, most of them were asked all those questions (about their vision and credentials), so they know. And if you are not on the ground. Who is going to vote for you,” the director asked.

Recall that Obi was the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, while Kwankwaso was the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, flagbearer in the election.

DAILY POST reports that in the buildup to that election, several aspirants, some relatively unknown, joined the LP and NNPP and even won. But months later, many of them dumped these parties for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

However, the NDC spokesman said his party has learned from that.

“So, from that experience, the NDC has also told all the aspirants that it is not going to be business as usual. We are going to check your pedigree.

“If you don’t have a verifiable pedigree and commitment to the party, to the principles and values that the party is espousing, then you are not going to pick a ticket and fly the flag of the NDC. So, we are learning from the mistakes of the past,” he added.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Osita Okechukwu on Thursday, said the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, has raised serious concerns over the unforced error of elevating personal ambition above the zoning convention.

Okechukwu said since the advent of the Fourth Republic, zoning has largely guaranteed national cohesion, patriotism, fairness, and a sense of belonging among Nigerians.

He said it amounts to political opportunism for the ADC to disregard the zoning principle at a time when virtually all major political parties like APC, PDP, LP, NDC and a majority of Nigerians subscribe to rotational presidency in the overriding national interest.

In a statement he signed, the former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, said by its action, the ADC has “chosen to return Nigeria to the old and divisive North-versus-South political morass, which made Rotimi Amechi reject the offer of vice president.

He stressed that “Nigeria’s unity remains non-negotiable and that no individual’s political ambition should supersede national cohesion, as nobody can be president in a crisis-ridden country.”

Okechukwu further argued that with “Nigeria entangled in palpable insurgency, it is most patriotic and appropriate that all northern political gladiators except one are patiently waiting for 2031, the Northern turn under the existing rotational understanding.”

He expressed hope that the ADC leadership will not blame the APC and, by extension, President Tinubu when the majority of Nigerians vote against their unforced error of breaching the zoning convention, bearing in mind that their 2023 breach of the same principle significantly contributed to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s irretrievable and deep internal divisions till date.

Okechukwu maintained that history will ultimately judge the leaders of the ADC not by the intensity of their rhetoric and rationalisation but by their non-adherence to the zoning glue that contributes to national unity, institutional stability and democratic consolidation.