{"id":166983,"date":"2025-06-15T18:38:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T17:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc"},"modified":"2025-06-15T20:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T19:25:17","slug":"threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc","title":{"rendered":"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has condemned the recent defections of politicians in the opposition parties to the ruling political party in Nigeria<\/p>\n<p>It describes such move as self-serving and a threat to the country\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n<p>The Director of CHRAN, Otuekong Franklyn Isong, stated this at the weekend in Uyo during an Annual Public Lecture to mark the 2025 Democracy Day in Nigeria with the theme, \u2018The Role of Opposition Political Parties in Deepening Democracy\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Isong who noted that opposition political parties are necessary to safeguard democracy, called on Nigerians to resist the temptation of turning the country into a one-party state. He stressed that democracy cannot thrive if political parties are depleted, drained or silenced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we in CHRAN are advocating for independent candidacy to further enrich our multi-party system and broaden voters choice, we observe that the current political trend of self-serving defections from opposition political parties to the ruling party, if not checked, pose a serious threat to our hard-earned democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we must deepen our democracy, opposition political parties must not be depleted, drained or silenced. If we must grow our democracy, we must resist the temptation of turning the country into a one-party State. Opposition political parties are necessary to safeguard democracy,\u201d Isong said.<\/p>\n<p>He called on President Bola Tinubu to come up with people-oriented policies and programmes, urged him to operate differently from his predecessors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe urge him to do things differently from his predecessors-in-office. Let his policies and programmes be pro-Nigerians. I believe that Mr. President has good intentions for this country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has demonstrated the capacity to provide good governance to Nigerians. He has the strength of character to make a good leader,\u201d the CHRAN director stated.<\/p>\n<p>Isong commended Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, for his achievements in two years, saying it speaks volumes for him and described his approach to governance as \u201cbottom to top approach\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is concentrating more on the downtrodden than the elites. He is paying pension promptly, and settling the backlogs of gratuities owed by successive administrations in the State.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder his watch, Akwa Ibom has remained one of the most peaceful States in the federation. The security agencies are being supported greatly by the Governor to carry out their responsibilities of crime fighting and crime prevention in the State.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe appreciate and commend the concerted efforts of security agencies in the State for their relentless efforts to nip security challenges in the bud,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>In his keynote address, Prof. Aniekan Sampson Brown, Professor of Criminology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Uyo, called on opposition parties to rise up to their responsibility of scrutiny and accountability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have a position in the social division of labour, the behaviour you put up in relation to that position is called role. And so in the social division of labour of politics, you have a political party in government as the ruling party, and then others will pass for the opposition parties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat are the roles of opposition parties? A simple Google will lead us to this, that one role would have to be for scrutiny and accountability. It is not that when you lose the election, you go to Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen another election cycle comes, you come with money and you bamboozle everybody who lose their way through and win again, after that you go back, no,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has condemned the recent defections of politicians in the opposition parties to the ruling political party in Nigeria It describes such move as self-serving and a threat to the country\u2019s democracy. The Director of CHRAN, Otuekong Franklyn Isong, stated this at the weekend [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":166982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[34,3211,254,17817],"class_list":["post-166983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-apc","tag-cso","tag-nigeria","tag-threat-to-democracy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has condemned the recent defections of politicians in the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has condemned the recent defections of politicians in the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-15T17:38:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-15T19:25:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-15T17:38:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-15T19:25:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc\"},\"wordCount\":592,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"APC\",\"cso\",\"Nigeria\",\"Threat to democracy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc\",\"name\":\"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC - Nigeria\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-15T17:38:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-15T19:25:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has condemned the recent defections of politicians in the ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC - Nigeria","description":"The Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has condemned the recent defections of politicians in the ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC","og_description":"The Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has condemned the recent defections of politicians in the ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc","og_site_name":"Nigeria","article_published_time":"2025-06-15T17:38:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-15T19:25:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC","datePublished":"2025-06-15T17:38:55+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-15T19:25:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc"},"wordCount":592,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg","keywords":["APC","cso","Nigeria","Threat to democracy"],"articleSection":["all news","Policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc","name":"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC - Nigeria","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg","datePublished":"2025-06-15T17:38:55+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-15T19:25:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Center for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has condemned the recent defections of politicians in the ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750002965.260771.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"caption":"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/threat-to-democracy-cso-frowns-at-mass-defection-to-apc#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Threat to democracy: CSO frowns at mass defection to APC"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/","name":"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}