By Wale Akinola

13  All Progressives Congress (APC) senators defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday. 37 members of the House of Representatives also dumped the ruling party at the federal level for the opposition PDP. The senators who defected are Rabi’u Kwankwaso (Kano-Central), Dino Melaye (Kogi-West), Monsurat Sunmonu (Oyo-Central), Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara-South), Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna-North), Usman Nafada (Gombe), Ibrahim Dambaba (Sokoto), Mohammed Shittu (Jigawa),.Isa Misau (Bauchi), Suleiman Nazif (Bauchi),.Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara), Barnabas Gemade (Benue)  and Senator Abdulaziz Murtala-Nyako (Adamawa).

Expectedly, the defections are reverberating in some states where the lawmakers hail from ahead of the 2019 polls. The 2019 elections are, in fact, believed in several politically informed quarters to have motivated the defections.

Whereas some of the defectors are said to be battle ready with their governors in the 2019 elections, a few of them are believed to be interested in the presidency. In essence, those in the latter category are  keen to contesting next year’s presidential election with President Muhammadu Buhari who is seeking re-election.

Besides the lawmakers who defected on Tuesday, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, alongside his associates, also moved from the APC to the PDP.

Meanwhile, there are indications that there will be more defections from the APC any moment from now. Both top leaders of the National Assembly, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu  Dogara, for instance, are said to be ready to jump ship. Speculation is also rife that Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State is on the verge of leaving the APC for the PDP to actualise his presidential ambition.

These are interesting times in the polity. But the defections appear to have inevitably turned some states into a  battleground in the run-up to the 2019 elections.