President of the Nigerian Senate leaves the party in power

LAGOS – President of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki, resigned Tuesday from the ruling party and joined the opposition, bringing a fresh blow to the re-election of the country's leader, Muhammadu Buhari.

"I wish to inform Nigerians that after extensive consultations, I decided to take leave of All Progressive Congress (APC)," Saraki announced on Twitter.

Saraki, the third politician of the nation, said that he would return to the Democratic People's Party (PDP), the party he filed for APC in 2014.

"Today Now … I'm going back to the party where I started my political journey, the People's Democratic Party (PDP). "

The PDP opposition has hosted a series of defections by legislators from the APC and other politicians in his lap in recent weeks.

Last week, 14 senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives of the Lower House left the APC on the last day before Parliament adjourned for a suspension. There are 109 seats in the Senate and 360 in the House.

Most of the defectors would have joined the PDP at Saraki's request.

Earlier this month, more than 30 parties, including the PDP, declared that they were forming a new alliance, while a dissident group was forming within the APC of disgruntled party members.

They called Buhari's stewardship of Nigeria over the last three years "a monumental disaster".

Up to now, Buhari and his APC party were considered stronger to win presidential and parliamentary elections in February.

But his opponents are gaining ground before the party primaries in August, as discontent grows with regard to his style of government and the treatment of widespread violence across the country.

Saraki, 55, although he is a member of the ruling party, has fought with the government.

He believes that he has been designated as a critic and rival by the presidency. Many of those who are the subject of an investigation or a trial for corruption are members of the PDP.

Saraki himself defected from the PDP to the APC before the last elections.

A governor twice from his central Kwara state between 2003 and 2011, Saraki was tried for alleged corruption because of his stewardship.

He is also facing a police investigation into a recent bank robbery in Offa, in the state.

Earlier this month, Saraki was laundered in Nigeria's Supreme Court of corruption charges, which he described as politically motivated.

His supporters believed that his problems had begun when he had plotted with the PDP senators to win the presidency of the Senate despite the choice of the APC for the highest office.

Although it is said that Saraki has a presidential ambition, he still has to make it public.

Also on Tuesday, Abdulfatah Ahmed, the current governor of Kwara and a loyalist Saraki, announced his defection to the PDP

He said that the "APC" can no longer serve as a platform for Realize the aspirations and expectations of my people "

Saraki and Ahmed both dropped the PDP to form the APC, an alliance of several marginal parties that overthrew PDP president Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. [19659023] AFP