Several reactions have trailed the recent gale of defections in the National Assembly as a member of the House of Representatives, Benedict Etanabene, has faulted some members of the Labour Party for dumping the party for the All Progressives Congress (APC)
He claimed that the turnout for the most recent Edo and Ondo State gubernatorial elections worried the lawmakers.
However, Etanabene, who is the representative for Delta State’s Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie Federal Constituency, attributed the members’ defection to the next general election in 2027.
He specifically stated that the lawmakers were worried about the turnout for the recent governorship elections in Edo and Ondo State, which were won by APC candidates.
The legislator claims that there is no crisis in the LP that would justify lawmakers switching to the ruling party
“If it is about those issues, I can tell you that the larger number of those who just left are people that believe in the leadership of Julius Abure.
“It is not only the Labour Party. I am expecting the trend from other opposition parties. What happened in Edo and Ondo is frightening to the extent that in 2027, it is going to be business as usual for APC. They have started thinking of positioning themselves.”
When asked if it is a threat for him in 2027, the lawmaker said that nothing would make him dump the LP for another party.
The lawmaker lamented that votes do not count in Nigeria, calling for a change in the system.
He also urged politicians to embrace morality in politics and avoid dumping a party that elected them to a political office.
Four members of the Labour Party in the lower chamber defected to APC on Thursday. The lawmakers are Chinedu Okere (Owerri municipal/owerri north/Owerri west constituency), Mathew Donatus (Kaura federal constituency of Kaduna), Akiba Bassey (Calabar municipal/Odukpani constituency), and Esosa Iyawe (Oredo federal constituency of Edo).
The quartet cited internal squabbles in the Labour Party as the reason for their political switch, according to a letter read by the Speaker of the House Abbas Tajudeen, during plenary on Thursday.
The Labour Party (LP), a pro-worker political movement that has been around for more than 20 years, gained traction in mainstream politics in the 2023 elections by winning more than 34 House of Representatives seats and six Senate seats.
Compared to its phenomenal stride in the 2023 elections, the LP did not get a single seat in the 2019 National Assembly elections.
With the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, coming third during the poll, many had thought that the Labour Party would form a formidable opposition alongside the PDP against the ruling APC, but intra-party squabbles after the general elections have plagued the party.
However, the Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, George Ibezimako Ozodinobi (LP, Anambra), has berated his colleagues for leaving the party to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
After the speaker read the letter of defection, Ozodinobi raised a point of order on the floor of the Green Chamber, expressing disappointment with his colleagues who had just left the LP.
“I will quote the Bible. When Jesus was carrying the cross to Calvary, the woman, Veronica, was weeping. And he looked back and said, Women of Israel, don’t weep for me; weep for yourself,” the lawmaker said.
“I am telling those who have defected that they will continue weeping for themselves because where you have crossed over to, you don’t have a future.”
In the wake of their defection, the Labour Party described their move as disappointing.
The spokesman of the party, Obiora Ifoh said their defection was “quite unfortunate, and we condemn the action, which is irrational, untenable, inconsistent, and alien to all known norms for which democracy stands for.”
“Though the Labour Party leadership is undaunted by the defection, it has however, elected not to allow it slide and has therefore instructed its legal team to commence the legal actions against the defectors and to also commence the process of regaining our mandates in line with the 1999 constitution and 2022 Electoral Act as amended,” the LP spokesman said in a statement.
