Labour Party (LP) was on Thursday, December 5, 2024 dealt a devastating blow as its four members of the House of Representatives defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
This was announced on Thursday by Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, the Speaker of the House of Representatives during plenary session of the Green chamber on Thursday.
The defection is seen as a major blow to the Labour Party, which had positioned itself as a rising force in Nigerian politics.
The lawmakers, who defected include Chinedu Okere (Owerri Municipal/Owerri North/Owerri West Federal Constituency), Mathew Donatus (Kaura Federal Constituency of Kaduna), Akiba Bassey (Calabar Municipal/Odukpani Federal Constituency of Cross River), and Esosa Iyawe (Oredo Federal Constituency of Edo).
They attributed their defection to the alleged crisis within the LP. Abbas congratulated the legislators, stating that they had “taken the right decision.”
In the same vein, Hon Erhriatake Ibori-Suenu, representing Ethiope Federal Constituency in Delta, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC. I
Ibori-Suenu is the daughter of James Ibori, former governor of Delta and a prominent member of the PDP.
Ali Isa, the Minority Whip, and George Ozodinobi, the Deputy Minority Whip, protested the defections.
Ozodinobi said his colleagues lacked a political ideology, adding that when people join a political party without an ideology, that is when such levels of defection is witnessed.
Ozodinobi particularly criticized the APC, saying it has brought hunger to Nigerians and urged lawmakers not to join the party.
The two leading opposition political parties namely, the PDP and LP have of recent lost several legislators to the APC.
For instance, Ezenwa Onyewuchi, the senator representing Imo East, in July 2024, defected from the LP to the APC while in October, Chris Nkwonta and Sulaiman Abubakar left the PDP for the APC.
