No Law Bars Governors from Defecting, APC Replies Daily Trust

No Law Bars Governors from Defecting, APC Replies Daily Trust

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted Daily Trust newspaper over its Monday, October 20, 2025, editorial titled “APC Should Learn From History,” describing it as “biased, reckless and steeped in falsehoods.”

In a statement signed on Monday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the APC said the newspaper’s claim that recent defections of governors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC threaten Nigeria’s multi-party democracy was “daft and constitutionally illiterate.”

“The editorial failed miserably to explain how the exercise by governors of their constitutional freedom of association and democratic liberty to choose among competing party alternatives threatens the country’s multi-party democracy,” Morka stated.

He said the Constitution guarantees every citizen, including governors the right to freely associate, adding that no law bars any elected official from joining another political party.

“That governors are sponsored by political parties does not and cannot extinguish their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of association. If that was ever the intent of the framers of our Constitution, it would be expressly stated, not left to Daily Trust’s warped conjecture,” Morka said.

The ruling party described the editorial as “bereft of reason, objectivity and rationality,” accusing Daily Trust of echoing “the senseless screams of opposition parties.”

“How can anyone claim APC coerces governors to defect? Governors are chief executives of their states and control vast resources. Daily Trust did not tell Nigerians what influence APC has over them to make such a move,” Morka queried.

According to him, defections across political parties are part of Nigeria’s democratic experience, not an anomaly.

“Defections are neither new nor one-sided. Prominent former APC members like Rotimi Amaechi, Nasir El-Rufai and John Oyegun have joined other parties, just as opposition figures like Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have defected several times,” he added.

The APC maintained that democracy is rooted in freedom, not restriction.

“You cannot advance democracy by abrogating basic freedoms that are intrinsic to it. A one-party state cannot emerge by wishful thinking or editorial agitation,” Morka said, adding that 19 political parties remain active in Nigeria.

The party also accused Daily Trust of abandoning responsible journalism for partisan propaganda.

“While its editors have the freedom to express opinions, they bear a duty to uphold the time-tested values of responsible journalism in the public interest,” the statement read.

Morka reaffirmed that the APC and the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu remain focused on implementing the Renewed Hope Agenda, aimed at improving citizens’ welfare and building a more prosperous nation.