A member of the House of Representatives representing Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie Federal Constituency in Delta State, Benedict Etanabene, has provided the reason some of his colleagues from the Labour Party are dumping the party for the All Progressives Congress, APC.
According to him, they are frightened by the outcome of the recent governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states. Those elections produced APC candidates as the respective winners.
According to the lawmaker, there is no crisis in the LP that would warrant the defection of the lawmakers to the ruling side.
“There is no leadership crisis in the Labour Party,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“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,” he said.
The lawmaker lamented that votes do not count in Nigeria, calling for a change in the system.
DAILY POST reported that four members of the LP Caucus in the lower chamber defected to the ruling party 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).
Speaker Abbas Tajudeen announced the defection on the floor of the House.
The LP had vowed to declare their seats vacant, according to the provision of the law.