A member of the House of Representatives Fom Dalyop Chollom has defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress, adding to the growing list of lawmakers who have teamed up with APC in recent weeks.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas read Chollom’s resignation letter from the LP during plenary on Tuesday.
Chollom who represents the Barkin Ladi/Riyom Federal Constituency cited the political crisis in LP and the need for a better representation of his people as reasons for his move.
But the Minority Leader of the House Kingsley Chinda and the leader of the LP caucus in the Green Chamber George Ozodinobi both objected to his reason for dumping the party.
They asked that his seat be declared vacant for contravening provisions of the Nigerian Constitution.
Despite their objection, Speaker Abbas ruled both of them out of order. He insisted that Cholom’s defection to the APC was done in line with the rules.
The Plateau lawmaker was welcomed into the APC by a former governor of the state Simon Lalong and other members of the party who were at the House of Representatives to witness the event.
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LP Kicks
His defection came about a week after four House of Representatives members dumped LP – one of Nigeria’s main opposition parties – for the ruling APC.
The four lawmakers who left the LP 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).
Just like Chollom, they all referenced the internal crisis in the Labour Party for their decision, a claim the party has rejected.
The LP described their defection as “quite unfortunate” and threatened to take the lawmakers to court.
“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,” LP spokesman Obiora Ifoh said in a statement.
It asked Abbas to declare their seats vacant, claiming that they flouted the Nigerian law.
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‘It is about 2027’
Following their defection, their colleague and a member of the Labour Party Etanabene Benedict said other LP lawmakers are planning to leave the party.
Benedict said the wave of defection sweeping across the LP is due to the 2027 election.
“It is about 2027. The trend of Edo and Ondo is frightening to them, and they do not believe that they are strategically positioned to seek reelection under the umbrella of the Labour Party. That is the main reason,” he said in an edition of Channels TV’s Politics Today.
“There are still many others in the Labour Party that are thinking along that line too. So, if it happens tomorrow, I won’t be surprised.”