LP reacts to defection of 4 Reps to APC

The Labour Party (LP) has lambasted the four House of Representatives members who defected to the All Progressives Party (APC) on Thursday.

In a statement issued by National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, the defected lawmakers were lampooned for their ‘show of shame’ defecting to the ruling Party.

The statement read, “The leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has received with discontentment the news of the decampment, today, of some lawmakers representing the party in the National Assembly to the ruling APC.

“The Reps members included Hon. Tochukwu Okere (Imo), Hon. Donatus Mathew (Kaduna), Hon. Bassey Akiba (Cross River), Hon. Iyawe Esosa (Edo) Hon. Daulyop Fom (Plateau).

“Recall that their letter of decampment to the APC was read on the Green Chamber floor by the Speaker, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas.

“The decampment, to us, is quite unfortunate, and we condemn the action that is irrational, untenable, inconsistent, and alien to all known norms for which democracy stands for.

“Section 68(g) of the 1999 constitution is emphatic on when to defect and what happens when a lawmaker sponsored by a political party decides to jump ship.

“The Constitution states (g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.

“Since the formation of the Labour Party in 2002, the party has been very active in the political scene, having in the past produced a governor and several other elected officers across the board.

“But it was in the 2023 general election that it achieved its highest feat under the leadership of Barrister Julius Abure having won a governorship seat, 8 Senate and 35 House of Representative seats as well as numerous state House of Assembly seats.

“The party also caused a major upset at the presidential election, one that many Nigerians still believed that the Labour Party won.

“The successes achieved at that election expectedly elicited some pockets of internal pressure, which have since been dealt with through internal peace mechanisms and also through judicial means.

“Presently, while some other big parties are swimming in their own political tempest, Labour Party has since moved on to have resolved all its challenges. It is therefore safe to say that there is absolute peace in the Labour Party. Therefore, no one elected on the ticket of the Labour Party has the constitutional protection to decamp from the party along with the party’s mandate.

“For emphasis, you will recall that the leadership of the party in 2022, in line with the party’s manifesto, threw the doors of the party open to all Nigerians who desire to be in the leadership cadre but could not because of the monetisation policies of some of the octopus parties then in existence. The Labour Party thought it wise to percolate power down to the grassroot to serve the intended population rather than allowing power to be exclusively for the urbane and rich few. Labour Party did not only give out free membership cards but also gave out free nomination forms to as many that could not afford the ridiculously low fees”.

LP said “On that note, we will call on Nigerians to beware of these genre of politicians lacking in clear democratic ideology and ethos rather than ‘Jumpology’ ideology; jumping from one party to the other, in disregard to the enabling laws and without any ideological leaning. If we really want this democracy to thrive, we must isolate these political merchants and opportunists and help bury their mercantilist political enterprise by snubbing, affronting and rejecting them in future polls having exhibited grave level of character deficit by betraying public trust.”