Labour party vows to take legal action against defected rep members to APC.

By Divine Sam

The Labour Party has vowed to take legal action against four members of the House of Representatives who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The defectors—Chinedu Okere, Mathew Donatus, Akiba Bassey, and Esosa Iyawe—were announced by the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, as having left the party due to what he described as “internal crisis” within the Labour Party.

In response, the party’s spokesman, Obiora Ifoh, stated that no elected representative has the right to defect with the mandate they received under the Labour Party. Ifoh emphasized that the party has instructed its legal team to initiate action against the defectors and to seek the restoration of the party’s mandates, in accordance with the 1999 Constitution and the 2022 Electoral Act. He further clarified that despite the defection, there is peace within the Labour Party, and the defectors’ actions are not constitutionally protected.