Four members of the House of Representatives from the Labour Party (LP) and one from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaker of the House Abbas Tajudeen announced their defections on Thursday.
The LP lawmakers who jumped ship are Tochukwu Chinedu Okere (Imo), Donatus Matthew (Kaduna), Akiba Bassey (Cross River), and Esosa Iyawe (Edo). Erhiatake Ibori-Suenu, daughter of former Delta State Governor James Ibori, also defected from the PDP to the APC.
According to the lawmakers, their decision to defect stemmed from the lingering crisis and factionalization in the LP and PDP.
Asked if he was not taking away the mandate of those who elected him under LP, one of them, Donatus Matthew, who represents the Kaura Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, claimed his decision to defect was based on his conviction.
“You cannot just wait on the decision of the people at the constituency level because you are dealing with people with different levels of understanding,” he explained.
The Labour Party has condemned the defections. National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh said the party has opened a “Hall of Shame Register” for the defected lawmakers and officials elected under the party’s platform.
Ifoh also accused the defectors of being “ingrates” who forgot the party’s support during their election campaigns.
Another LP chieftain, George Ozodinobi, criticized the defection, saying that of all parties to defect to, it shouldn’t even be the APC, which has “brought hunger to Nigerians“.
Most lawmakers of the little-known LP were voted into office in the 2023 election on the bandwagon effect of the #Obidient Movement, which backed the then-presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi.
However, the APC rolled out the red carpet to welcome the defectors. Speaker Abbas Tajudeen of the APC congratulated them on their decision.
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