See the Numbers of Labour Party Reps and PDP Lawmaker that Join APC
Four members of the House of Representatives have officially defected from the Labour Party (LP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), a move announced by Tajudeen Abbas, the Speaker of the House, during a session on Thursday.
The lawmakers who made the switch are Chinedu Okere (Owerri Municipal/Owerri North/Owerri West Federal Constituency), Mathew Donatus (Kaura Federal Constituency, Kaduna), Akiba Bassey (Calabar Municipal/Odukpani Federal Constituency, Cross River), and Esosa Iyawe (Oredo Federal Constituency, Edo). They cited internal conflicts within the LP as the reason for their decision to join APC.
Speaker Abbas congratulated the defecting lawmakers, affirming that they had made the right choice by aligning with the ruling party.
In a related development, Erhriatake Ibori-Suenu, the representative for Ethiope Federal Constituency in Delta State and daughter of former Delta Governor James Ibori, also switched from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC.
The defections sparked protests from members of the opposition. Ali Isa, the Minority Whip, and George Ozodinobi, the Deputy Minority Whip, voiced their objections. Ozodinobi, a senior member of LP, criticized the defectors for lacking political ideology, attributing the defections to the absence of strong principles within the parties.
He also condemned the APC for the hardship it has allegedly caused Nigerians, urging lawmakers not to join the party.
The defections add to a growing list of politicians moving from LP and PDP to APC. Notably, in July, Senator Ezenwa Onyewuchi of Imo East left LP for APC, and in October, Chris Nkwonta and Sulaiman Abubakar switched from
PDP to APC.
