Four members of the Labour Party (LP) and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have dumped their parties for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Their defection was disclosed by the Speaker of the House, Abbas Tajudeen in letters he read upon resumption of plenary on Thursday.
The lawmakers are Chinedu Okere (Owerri municipal/Owerri north/Owerri west federal constituency), Mathew Donatus (Kaura federal constituency of Kaduna), Akiba Bassey (Calabar municipal/Odukpani federal constituency of Cross River), and Esosa Iyawe (Oredo federal constituency of Edo).
The lawmakers said the left the party following the alleged crisis tearing Labour Party apart.
Abbas congratulated the legislators, saying they had “taken the right decision”.
Erhriatake Ibori-Suenu, who represents Ethiope federal constituency of Delta, also defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.
Ibori-Suenu is the daughter of James Ibori, former Delta governor and chieftain of the PDP.
Meanwhile, Ali Isa, Minority whip, and George Ozodinobi, Deputy Minority whip, protested the defections.
Mr Ozodinobi, an LP chieftain, said his colleagues had no ideology.
“When people enter a political party without ideology, you see such level of defection,” he said.
Ozodinobi said the APC has “brought hunger to Nigerians” and lawmakers should not be joining the party.
The LP and PDP have lost some legislators to the APC in recent weeks.