Defected lawmakers have no contribution to our party – LP

The leadership of the Labour Party has described its defected six lawmakers at the House of Representatives as a liability, stating that their absence would not be felt.

The party also labelled the lawmakers as paper-weight politicians who rode into office on the LP’s platform and its promise of quality leadership.

Speaking with Saturday PUNCH in separate interviews on Friday, the National Secretary of LP, Umar Farouk and the party’s National Legal Adviser, Kehinde Edun, said the lawmakers wouldn’t be missed.

Both Farouk and Edun spoke a few hours after the National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, confirmed that the party had filed legal proceedings against the lawmakers to declare their seats vacant and ensure they refund all the salaries and allowances received to date.

On Thursday, the member representing Jos South/Jos East Federal Constituency, Plateau State, Ajang Iliya, announced his defection to the All Progressives Congress.

His defection to the APC brings to six the number of LP lawmakers lost to the ruling party.

The other five lawmakers are: Tochukwu Okere (Imo), Donatus Mathew (Kaduna), Bassey Akiba (Cross River), Iyawe Esosa (Edo) and Daulyop Fom (Plateau).

Reacting to the defection, Farouk said, “Left to me, I will say it is good riddance to bad rubbish. Since these people came into this party, they have never contributed one kobo to the movement or development of the party. So why should I care? In fact, they even gave the party an opportunity to drag them to court.

“So, we will take them to court and I am sure their seats will be declared vacant. After that, we will leave the Speaker of the House to take the honourable step. But we will certainly take them to court. For now, we are appealing to other members that they shouldn’t be seen exposing the party that gave them a voice and platform to ridicule.

“It is obvious those defecting from the party don’t share in our ideology. That is why they could put up such a rascality. The annoying thing is that such rascality is coming up at a period the party leadership has already extended an olive branch to them, urging those who are aggrieved or planning to leave to come back.”

When asked why he felt the six lawmakers chose to go the APC and not any of the opposition parties, Farouk said he suspected it had a lot to do with personal gains.

“Of course, you know them (lawmakers). They are doing that for their selfish interests. They want to get into the majority and get access to juicy committees and opportunities.

“Many of them are getting to the House of Reps for the first time and have seen what is happening in there. So, they get distracted and just keep collecting everything that comes their way,” he stated.

The national secretary decried the leniency approach the party took by not dishing out sanctions to erring LP chieftains from the outset.

“When they were doing all these things, we didn’t take any action against them. They even had the temerity of opposing and challenging the constitutionality of the leadership. Consequently, they came up with all sorts of factions.

“Imagine them blaming their defection on the crisis in the party. If there is any crisis within the party, they should accept that they are the architects. The defection is just for their personal gain,” Farouk reiterated.

His position was shared by Edun, the LP legal adviser, who described the rebellious lawmakers are as traitors.

Edun expressed his conviction that APC would not give the lawmakers the party’s tickets to contest the next election.

He said, “These people are paper-weight politicians. The party only helped them to get to where they are because of the movement we were able to create towards the elections. Many of them could not have won even a councillor seat. But their victory became possible because of the movement created by the part.

“Now, many of them have been irresponsible. They have not done well, and they know it may be difficult to convince their constituents because of their poor performance. Their reasoning now is that perhaps if they move to the ruling party, it will save them from facing the people who voted for them.

“But it will not, because many of them won’t even scale through the APC primaries. Stronger aspirants are waiting for them there. Many of those they defeated at the general elections were because Nigerians wanted the Labour Party and were thumbprinting every category that had the logo.

Meanwhile, the APC has called for caution over the gale of defection to the party.

In an exclusive interview with our correspondent, the Deputy National Organising Secretary of the APC, Nze Duru, warned that encouraging desperate politicians to dump their parties could lead to a weak opposition.

He said, “The political space must be reinforced in such a way that people must not be encouraged to leave one party to another. People should be encouraged to stay within their political environment to develop the ideology of their party and not abandon it only because there are issues within the party.

“That is the only way to run a political party in Nigeria. I’m not one of those that will encourage defection. Opposition must be allowed to bloom and flourish. It is only on that account that you can have that agenda.

“Opposition represents a tendency that must not only be encouraged but also be cultivated and nurtured for the sake of the good of our country. If you decide, for any reason, that you need to change the party on the basis of which you’re elected, you need to put in your letter of resignation and then canvass for vote on the basis of another political party.”