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BREAKING: At last, Enugu LP lawmakers defect to PDP, meet Mbah
After weeks of speculations, six members of the Enugu State House of Assembly elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) finally announced their defection to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State, on Thursday, in what indicates a likely bandwagon, as a result of the crisis rocking one Nigeria’s main opposition parties.
The LP, which emerged third in reckoning after the 2023 general elections, has been embroiled in internecine crisis, with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), its parent body, insisting on the ouster of Julius Abure, as the National Chairman.
Incidentally, Abure, was re-elected at the party convention called to choose new leaders expected to take to the next stage after putting up a stellar performance during the last election, a development, which itself, had also sunk into controversy, as both the NLC and the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), dismissed it as a sham and insisted on taking over its leadership.
Apparently, seizing the moment, the Enugu lawmakers who have been speculated were eager to shift loyalty, cited the “existence of irreconcilable division, incessant crisis within the Labour Party at the national level and across all the state chapters,” as their reason.
The Nigerian constitution forbids defection from one party to another by elected political office holders, except in cases of division in their original parties, or in the case of the merger of the previous parties, a loophole, the Enugu lawmakers, have now exploited to make good their long-expected switch.
While presenting themselves to Peter Mbah, the Governor of the state, they added: “Regrettably, the party has evolved into state of perpetual discord with various factions embroiled in legal battles, thereby undermining its ability to effectively serve the interest of the people.
“The Labour Party once a beacon of hope for progressive ideas have regrettably become synonymous with internal squabbles, thereby reducing its capacity to fulfil the aspirations of electorate.”
Citing the national leadership tussle between the factions of Julius Abure and Lamidi Apapa as well as the national treasurer as some of the crises within the opposition party, they expressed hope that the PDP would give them the platform to continue to serve the interests of their people and thanked the leadership of the Labour Party for their support.
The defectors include the Chief Whip of the House and member representing Igboeze North I, Ejike Eze; the leader of the House and member representing Enugu North, Johnson Ugwu; the member representing Enugu South Urban, Princess Ugwu; member representing Nsukka West, Pius Ezeugwu; member representing Igbo-Etiti East, Amuka Williams, and member representing Oji River, Osita Eze.
After move through a motion for their defection was moved by Iloabuchi Aniagu and was seconded by Jane Eneh, Harrison Ogara, spokesman of the Assembly, also elected on the platform of the party, said though the lawmakers enjoyed freedom of association, they should know that there is a section of the Constitution that states that any member of a political party that defects to another political party without fulfilling the constitutional provisions for defection will automatically lose his or her seat.
Ogara insisted that there was no crisis at ward, local government, and state levels of the party in Enugu State as well as the national level of the party that would have warranted them to defect to another political party.
The corruption profile of Nigeria has dipped again in global reckoning with Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index, announcing that it slipped two places to 142nd out of 182 countries in the 2025.
In the damning report, which underscored the nation’s poor performance on the global anti-corruption ranking, Nigeria showed poor progress from its position in 2024 index, where it ranked 140 out of 180 countries with a score of 26 out of 100.
The addition of two countries in the latest rankings saw Nigeria maintain its score of 26 despite dropping two places.
Ranks can change if the number of countries included in the index changes, but a country’s score is the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0-100, where 0 means highly corrupt and 100 means very clean.
In its latest report, sub-Saharan Africa was the lowest performing region with an average score of 32 out of 100, with only four of the 49 countries scoring above 50.
Seychelles maintained the region’s highest scorer, with 68, followed by Cabo Verde (62), Botswana (58) and Rwanda (58), while Sudan (14), Eritrea (13), Somalia (9) and South Sudan (9), maintained the bottom spots.
Nigeria’s progress in tackling corruption, despite President Bola Tinubu’s repeated pledge to tackle the menace, has been slow.
Nigeria, which best performance in the last decade was in 2016 when it ranked 136th and had a score of 28, scored 24 out of 100 in 2022, and ranked 150th; while in 2021, it scored the same but placed 154th — its worst performance under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Paul Banoba, regional advisor for Africa at TI, said public sector corruption always hits the most vulnerable people hardest, adding: “African governments need to urgently translate anti-corruption commitments into decisive action by further strengthening accountability institutions and increasing transparency, protecting civic space and supporting the public.
In 2024, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), controversially named Tinubu a finalist for its ‘Corrupt Person of the Year’ award.
“The police must open the secretariat because they are required to comply with the court order. The closure resulted from disagreements within the party over who constitutes the genuine leadership, but that matter has already been settled by the court.
This was the position of the Nyesom Wike camp of the Peoples Democratic Party, as it prepares to take possession of the Wadata Plaza complex in line with the Federal High Court, Ibadan Division verdict, last month recognising it as the authentic leadership.
The PUNCH, quoted Jungudo Mohammed, spokesman of the National Caretaker Committee, raised by the camp last year, explained that members did not take over on Monday, due to ongoing administrative and security processes.
The paper quoted Mohammed, National Publicity Secretary of the National Caretaker Committee, as saying: “I am not aware that the police declined our request, and I do not believe that is true. The police are the appropriate authority to confirm why the secretariat has not yet been opened, and we cannot force them.
“They are still carrying out their administrative and security processes before taking final action. However, we are certain that the secretariat will be reopened.
“Therefore, the police are expected to reopen the secretariat to allow for the lawful activities and business of the political party. It is not true that the police declined our request; what we know is that they intend to reopen it once their internal processes are concluded.”
When asked about their next steps if the police failed to reopen Wadata Plaza, Mohammed said, “We are law-abiding people and leaders, and we will continue to engage the police respectfully to understand any delays and address any concerns they may have.
“We will not resort to violence or unlawful actions. The police are a law-enforcement agency and must comply with court orders, and we are confident it will not escalate to any conflict.
“What we know for certain is that the secretariat will be reopened for party activities. The exact date for reopening is not yet known because administrative processes sometimes face delays, even after tentative timelines are given. Nonetheless, once those processes are completed soon, we remain optimistic that the secretariat will be reopened.”
On Sunday, both the Wike-backed PDP camp and the Tanimu Turaki (SAN)-led NWC exchanged words over the planned reopening of the secretariat.
While the Wike-backed camps insisted it would go ahead with the takeover of the headquarters, the Turaki camp, backed by Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Dauda Lawal (Zamfara) and Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), had stated that the police would bear the responsibility if anything happened at the party headquarters.
On January 30, 2026, a Federal High Court in Ibadan nullified the PDP National Convention held on November 15, 2025, and barred Turaki (SAN) and several others elected during the election from presenting themselves as national officers of the party.
Prior to the ruling, PDP governors had endorsed the Ibadan convention, which had elected Turaki and the National Working Committee members for a four-year term.
While the governors oversaw a transition from former Chairman Umar Damagum to Turaki before Damagum’s tenure ended on December 9, the Wike-aligned faction formed a 13-member caretaker committee on December 8, appointing Abdulrahman Mohammed as acting national chairman, Samuel Anyanwu as acting national secretary, and other officials with a 60-day mandate.
Efforts by both factions to hold a meeting at Wadata Plaza on November 18, 2025, ended in violence, after which the police sealed the PDP National Headquarters, which had remained closed for nearly three months.
Following the ruling of the Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan, which favoured the Wike camp, the party pledged to hold a fresh convention to elect new party officials.
INEC subsequently invited the Wike-backed faction to represent the PDP in line with the court order.
At the meeting, Anyanwu announced that the Wadata Plaza Secretariat would be reopened for their use on Monday, a move the Turaki-led NWC kicked against.
Apparently to press home a vital message, Rotimi Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State, on Tuesday, stormed the National Assembly complex, venue for the on-going, electoral reform protests with his son in tow.
The former governor, who for eight years, served as Minister of Transportation in the government of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, said the presence of his son, a medical doctor, was to serve dual purposes – to emphasise that the protest did not exclude anyone and for him to attend to the medical needs of the protesters.
The protest, which began on Monday, was called to demonstrate against the Senate’s rejection of mandatory electronic transmission of election results in future elections in Nigeria, particularly that of 2027.
Stressing that his son had to come along in case the demonstration turned violent and injuries are sustained, the former Minister, explained that he came with his son to demonstrate his belief that during major protests, leaders should be at the forefront with their families.
Amaechi, currently a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), called on Nigerians to rise up against the bad governance of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which he accused of being opposed to electronic transmission of election results because it feared losing elections.
His words: “I believe that the opposition parties should come out – PDP, ADC, everybody should be out – to protest against the attempt of one party. If we come out, and they say the opposition has hijacked (the protest), what is APC doing? Are they not hijacking?
“What are they afraid of? I thought they said they have 31 governors and Tinubu is not Jonathan. The only way a good politician will know he has done well is by the people.”
He further stated that while Senate President Godswill Akpabio and President Bola Tinubu may ignore the demands of Nigerians, opposition parties and civil society organisations would persist until the decision is reversed.
Meanwhile, operatives of the Nigeria Police Force barricaded major roads leading to the National Assembly, where the Senate is scheduled to hold an emergency plenary session on Tuesday.
The protest is being led by human rights activist Aisha Yusuf, alongside several civil society groups that initiated the demonstration on Monday.
Nigeria very corrupt – Transparency International *Record dips again
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