The leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has announced that it has begun the legal process to reclaim the seats of four lawmakers who recently defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The opposition party argued that the lawmakers should not be allowed to retain their seats after switching allegiance to the APC.
LP’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, made this known in an exclusive interview with DAILY GAZETTE.
He expressed the party’s strong disapproval of the defections, describing them as “unfortunate, irrational, and against the principles of democracy.”
The four lawmakers who defected from LP to APC are Tochukwu Okere (Imo), Donatus Mathew (Kaduna), Bassey Akiba (Cross River), Iyawe Esosa (Edo), and Daulyop Fom (Plateau). Their defection letters were read on the floor of the House of Representatives by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas on Thursday.
Ifoh clarified that under Section 68(g) of the 1999 Constitution, a lawmaker who defects from the party that sponsored them should vacate their seat.
He added that while the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, has the authority to declare their seats vacant, the party doubted that this would happen due to the Speaker’s apparent support for the defectors.
As a result, the LP plans to take legal action to have the defected lawmakers’ seats officially declared vacant.
Ifoh also stated that the party would be compiling a “Hall of Shame” register, which would publicly name the defected lawmakers and other political figures deemed to have betrayed the party’s mandate.
The register, which is set to be published on Monday, is intended to highlight the LP’s disapproval of the defections and to warn against similar actions in the future.
“We will publish the register on Monday to show that it is wrong to carry a party’s mandate to another party without following the constitutional process,” Ifoh explained.
The party’s legal team has already begun the process of filing a case in court to resolve the issue.
