Four members of the House of Representatives have left the Labour Party (LP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House, announced the defections during Thursday’s plenary session.
The lawmakers who defected are: Chinedu Okere (Owerri Municipal/Owerri North/Owerri West Federal Constituency, Imo State), Mathew Donatus (Kaura Federal Constituency, Kaduna State), Akiba Bassey (Calabar Municipal/Odukpani Federal Constituency, Cross River State), and Esosa Iyawe (Oredo Federal Constituency, Edo State)
The defectors cited internal crises within the Labour Party as the reason for their decision.
Abbas commended their move, describing it as “the right decision.”
In a related development, Erhriatake Ibori-Suenu, representing Ethiope Federal Constituency in Delta State, also left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC. Ibori-Suenu is the daughter of James Ibori, a former Delta governor and PDP stalwart.
However, the defections sparked protests from opposition leaders in the chamber. Ali Isa, Minority Whip, and George Ozodinobi, Deputy Minority Whip, expressed dissatisfaction with the trend.
Ozodinobi, an LP leader, criticized the defectors, claiming they lacked ideological commitment. “When people join a party without ideology, you see such defections,” he said, accusing the APC of worsening the country’s economic challenges.
Both the LP and PDP have seen a string of defections to the APC in recent months. In July, Ezenwa Onyewuchi, representing Imo East in the Senate, defected from LP to APC. Similarly, in October, Chris Nkwonta and Sulaiman Abubakar left the PDP for APC.
