Two Reps, ex-lawmaker defect to APP, former speaker joins APM

The Action Peoples Party has disclosed the defection of two serving members of the House of Representatives and a former lawmaker to the party.

The development is expected to strengthen the party’s political structure and its campaign for a new approach to governance, ahead of the upcoming 2027 general elections.

According to a statement issued on Monday by APP chieftain and member of the House of Representatives, Ikenga Ugochinyere, the newly defected lawmakers include Boma Goodhead, representing Akuku-Toru/Asari-Toru Federal Constituency (Rivers State); Alozie Ikechi, representing Obingwa/Ugwunagbo/Osisioma Federal Constituency (Abia State);  and Uju Chima, a former member representing Oguta/Ohaji-Egbema/Oru West Federal Constituency (Imo State).

APP noted that the three lawmakers were listed among the Independent National Electoral Commission’s final candidates for the 2027 National Assembly elections on its platform.

“The Action Peoples Party has recorded a fresh boost ahead of the 2027 general elections with the defection of two serving members of the House of Representatives and a former federal lawmaker to the party.

“Those who joined the APP are Boma Goodhead, representing Akuku-Toru/Asari-Toru Federal Constituency of Rivers State; Alozie Munachim Ikechi, representing Obingwa/Ugwunagbo/Osisioma Federal Constituency of Abia State; and Uju Kingsley Chima, a former member representing Oguta/Ohaji-Egbema/Oru West Federal Constituency of Imo State.

“Goodhead and Ikechi are serving members of the House, while Chima is a former member seeking a return to the National Assembly under the APP,” the statement read.

Ugochinyere, who represents Ideato North and South Federal Constituency of Imo State, described the development as a major addition to the party ahead of the 2027 elections.

In his welcome address to the lawmakers, Ugochinyere described the party as a platform focused on the people’s interests.

“APP is a political home for independent-minded, new-generation politicians seeking to change old ways for a new way that is dominated by the people’s interests,” Ugochinyere stated.

The statement noted that the party was “excited to have great democratic fighters in its ranks,” adding that the defection was necessitated as politicians needed to reposition “themselves and political parties seeking to expand their structures beyond their traditional strongholds.”

In May 2026, Goodhead was disqualified from contesting the party’s primaries, thereby being denied a return ticket by the All Progressives Congress.

According to a report by PUNCH Online, in March 2026, Ikechi was among the 46-member Congress and Convention Committee slated to oversee the membership re-registration exercise of the Labour Party.

Chima, a former member of the Peoples Democratic Party in Imo State, escaped an alleged assassination attempt in February 2023, as the PDP described the incident an attempt by armed agents in the state to assassinate him.

Also, a former Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly and serving member representing Yola South State Constituency, Alhaji Kabiru Mijinyawa, and thousands of his supporters defected from the All Progressives Congress to the Action People’s Movement on Monday.

In his letter addressed to the state chairman of the APC and dated September 13, 2026, the former speaker said a lack of rule of law and transparency in dealing with members of the party had pushed him out of the APC.

“The recent APC primary elections in Adamawa State were a demonstration that the party lacks internal democracy; people were picked as candidates without due process”, he said.

The former speaker’s exit from the APC came two days after hundreds of party chieftains, led by Alhaji Tahir Shehu, defected to the APM.

Shehu, who spoke at the APC stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House last Saturday and advised the party leadership to take urgent action to reconcile aggrieved members, told PUNCH that his exit was based on the lack of internal democracy in the party.

“For us to go into the general elections as a united family, there is an urgent need to reconcile aggrieved members of the party and give them hope that they are important members of the family. They are not asking for anything, but let the party leadership show them that they are important organs of the APC in Adamawa State.”

The defections of the APC chieftains have heightened the political temperature in the state, with Alhaji Abdulraman Haske picking the governorship ticket of the APM.