Five House of Reps members dump Labour Party, join ruling APC

The Labour Party in Nigeria has lost five of its members at the House of Representatives to the All Progressives Congress on Thursday.

The letter of defection of the lawmakers to the APC was read on the Green Chamber floor by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas on Thursday.

Tochukwu Okere (Imo), Donatus Mathew (Kaduna), Bassey Akiba (Cross River), Iyawe Esosa (Edo) and Daulyop Fom (Plateau) all have defected from the Labour Party to the All Progressives Congress.

One of the now defected lawmakers justified the decision to leave the Labour Party to the APC.

“You cannot just work on the decision of the people at the constituency level because you are dealing with people with different levels of understanding.”

“I am taking this decision based on conviction. That is why whether you like it or not, there are people within the constituency who are convinced that it (defection) is the right decision for them. There are those who are skeptical waiting for the outcome,” he said.

It is unclear if the decision has anything to do with the crisis embroiling the Labour Party internally.

Labour Party pulled a major surprise in the last general election of 2023, winning major seats across the country.

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