LP to open “Hall of Shame” for Reps who defected to APC, threatens legal action against defected Lawmakers

The Labour Party (LP) has threatened legal action against four members of the House of Representatives who defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the LP.

On Thursday, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas announced the lawmakers’ defection. They are Chinedu Okere, Mathew Donatus, Akiba Bassey, and Esosa Iyawe who left the LP based on what they described as an “internal crisis” within the party.

“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 Obiora Ifoh said in a statement.

He refuted claims that the LP is in crisis, saying “there is absolute peace in the Labour Party. Therefore, no one elected on the ticket of the Labour Party has the constitutional protection to decamp from the party along with the party’s mandate”.

The party said it “received with discontentment the news of defection,” describing it as “quite unfortunate and we condemn the action which is irrational, untenable, inconsistent and alien to all known norms for which democracy stands for”.

Ifoh said the LP “will also approach the Speaker of the House of Representatives to declare vacant the seats occupied by these former Labour Party members in line with the House Rules. It is inappropriate and unacceptable for these lawmakers to continue to function as representatives of their constituencies illegally”.

“The party has also decided to open a ‘Hall of Shame’ register for these lawmakers or any lawmaker or elected officer of the party who engages in fraudulent acts of defection without first dropping the mandate gotten under the ticket of the party,” he said, adding that the defected “lawmakers will feature prominently in the register”.

In the statement, LP’s National Publicity Secretary that the defectors had “demonstrated a grave level of character deficit by betraying public trust,” adding that “if we want this democracy to thrive, we must isolate these political merchants and opportunists, and help bury their mercantilist political enterprises by snubbing and rejecting them in future elections.”

The LP spokesman further stated that Section 68(g) of the 1999 Constitution is clear on when a lawmaker can defect and the consequences when a lawmaker, sponsored by a political party, decides to switch allegiance.