No fewer than 27 All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the Lagos State House of Assembly are planning to dump the ruling party and move to the opposition Labour Party (LP) in the state as the house leadership crisis took a disturbing dimension on Monday.
The intending – defectors comprise 16 first timers, seven second term lawmakers’ and four others marking their third term in the house, and whose spread also cuts across the state’s three Senatorial Districts.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Julius Abure – led Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi, disclosed this on Tuesday in a release to newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Arabambi claimed that the bulk of the APC lawmakers heading to the LP are from the Lagos West, which is about the largest and most populous Senatorial district in the country.
He noted that the affected APC lawmakers who deplored the alleged Monday invasion of the Assembly complex by operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS), were already working to execute the mass defection plot ostensibly to register their displeasure over the alleged moves by an unnamed interest group to smuggle Obasa back to the house as its leader through the back door.
According to the LP National Publicity Secretary, the aggrieved APC lawmakers claimed that a new Speaker had already been elected in the person of Mojisola Meranda and that it was within the power of the Lagos Assembly to effect leadership change, wondering why anybody or group would want to rob of them of that inalienable right and power.
“They said Mudashiru Obasa had been removed and that the reasons for his removal were genuine. And as the crisis of the leadership change is festering, the people want to join us because LP party is viable in Lagos and Nigeria at large since the unresolved PDP crisis has sent them to a state of coma, where the former opposition party is now receiving treatment in the intensive care unit. There is no other opposition party in Lagos and Nigeria
“They are ready to work with us for 2027. We are flying Gbadebo Rhodes – Vivour again to take over the rein of power in Lagos State in 2027 and from there make incursion into other part of the country like Southwest, North East, North West, North Central and South – South of the country,” Arabambi said.
