LP lawmaker criticizes colleagues for dumping party

•says ‘you’ll weep’

By Christiana Ekpa

The Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, George Ibezimako Ozodinobi (LP, Anambra) has criticised his colleagues for defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC).
Four members of the LP, namely 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, Edo) had on Thursday dumped the party.
According to a letter read by the Speaker of the House, Abbas Tajudeen during plenary on Thursday, the defectors cited internal wrangling in the Labour Party, which garnered about six million votes in last year’s presidential election as the reason for their political switch.
But after the speaker read the letter of defection, Ozodinobi raised a point of order on the floor of the Green Chamber, expressing disappointment with his colleagues who had just left the LP.
“I will quote the Bible. When Jesus was carrying the cross to the Calvary, the woman, Veronica, was weeping. And he looked back and said, women of Israel, don’t weep for me, weep for yourself.
“I am telling those who have defected that they will continue weeping for themselves because where you have crossed over to, you don’t have a future,” the lawmaker said.
Following their defection, the Labour Party described their move as disappointing.
The spokesman of the party, Obiora Ifoh said their defection was quite unfortunate, condemning the action, which he said was irrational, untenable, inconsistent and alien to all known norms for which democracy stands for.
“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 said in a statement.