It was rough for the people of Maroa and Atakad communities in Kaura Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State, and bordering Plateau State, last week, as unknown gunmen, suspected to belong to a Fulani militia, killed not less than 40 people in two separate raids in which at least a soldier and a police man were also slain.

On the 17th of January, some 37 members of the PDP went to court to seek an injunction against the clear provision of Section 68 (G) of the 1999 Constitution, which says that a member should vacate his seat if he crosses over to another party if there is no crisis in the party. But because these members are aware of this provision of the law, they went to court to seek an injunction over an action they have not taken.

In many ways, the politics of Kaduna State mirrors that of the country not only because the state is sharply divided along religious lines but also because of its ethnic composition that engenders a fierce competition for power between the geo-political sections. Even at that, the significance of Kaduna goes beyond its locality, essentially because it has, for decades, been the political headquarters of the North.

The Senate has in the past weeks been turned into a political theatre with all sorts of drama and the principal characters being the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The drama has been characterized by confusion and intrigues while the bone of contention is the passage of the 2014 Appropriation Bill and the defection of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.

The dislocating effects of defection from one political party to another can be debilitating.But it can only be debilitating in so far as the losing party is not sure of itself.“Indeed, that is what the All Progressives Congress, APC, is throwing at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.