The senator representing Enugu East, Kelvin Chukwu, has officially dumped the Labour Party (LP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
His letter of defection was read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio at plenary on Wednesday.
The senator, in the letter, said his defection followed a wide consultation with his constituents and other stakeholders.
Chukwu is one of the 43 federal lawmakers – eight Senators and 35 House of Representatives members – that the LP produced in the 2023 elections.
However, some of the lawmakers have since dumped the party which gave them the platform through which they were elected.
Commenting on the development after 8 reps dumped LP in December, Obiora Ifoh, National Publicity Secretary of the party, described their action as “irrational, untenable, inconsistent and alien to all known norms for which democracy stands for”.
“Section 68(g) of the 1999 constitution is emphatic on when to defect and what happens when a lawmaker sponsored by a political party decides to jump ship. The Constitution states (g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected;
Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
“Since the formation of Labour Party in 2002, the party has been very active in the political scene having in the past produced a governor and several other elected officers across board. But it was in the 2023 general election that it achieved its highest feat under the leadership of Barrister Julius Abure having won a governorship seat, 8 Senate and 35 House of Representative seats as well as numerous state House of Assembly seats. The party also caused a major upset at the presidential election, one that many Nigerians still believed that Labour Party won.”
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