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BREAKING: LP opens ‘hall of shame’ as five Reps members defect to APC
“The party has also decided to open a ‘Hall of Shame’ register for these lawmakers or any lawmaker or elected officer of the party who engages in fraudulent act of defection without first dropping the mandate gotten under the ticket of the party.”
These were the exact words with which the near-tears Labour Party (LP), reacted on Thursday as they received the news of five of their lawmakers at the House of Representatives defecting to the All Progressives Congress in a fell swoop.
The party, conveying its reaction through Obiora Ifoh, its spokesman, described the action of the members as “unfortunate” reeling out the journey to their positions and how they won their elections on the back of Julius Abure, the current National Chairman, who they said put in a lot of work and his reputation down to build the part.
Ifoh, National Publicity Secretary, said the “Hall of Shame” would be erected to accommodate the names of those who have so dishonoured not only the party but the teeming number of supporters who against all odds voted them into office.
He also said the party would in the coming days approach the Speaker of the House of Representatives for him to declare the seats of the affected lawmakers vacant in line with relevant sections of the constitution.
Part of his statement on the development, read: “The leadership of Labour Party has received with discontentment the news of defection, today of some lawmakers representing the party in the National Assembly to the ruling APC.
“The Reps members include Tochukwu Okere (Imo), Donatus Mathew (Kaduna), Bassey Akiba (Cross River), Iyawe Esosa (Edo) and Daulyop Fom (Plateau). Their letter of defection to the APC was read on the Green Chamber floor by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas.
“The defection, to us, is quite unfortunate and we condemn the action which is 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. The successes achieved at that election expectedly elicited some pockets of internal pressure which have since being dealt with through internal peace mechanism and also through judicial means.
“Presently, while some other big parties are swimming in their own political tempest, Labour Party has since moved on having resolved all its challenges. It is therefore safe to say that there is absolute peace in the Labour Party.
“Therefore, no one elected on the ticket of the Labour Party has the constitutional protection to decamp from the party along with the party’s mandate.
“For emphasis, you will recall that the leadership of the party in 2022, in line with the party’s manifesto, threw the doors of the party open to all Nigerians who desire to be in the leadership cadre but could not because of the monetization policies of some of the octopus parties then in existence.
“The Labour Party thought it wise to percolate power down to the grassroot to serve the intended population rather than allowing power to be exclusively for the urbane and rich few. Labour Party did not only give out free membership cards but also gave out free nomination forms to as many that could not afford the ridiculously low fees.
“Thousands, including Okada riders, brick layers, young unemployed graduates, and artisans of all sorts including a palm kernel crusher in Enugu, took advantage of the party’s policy to participate in the 2023 general election, for which many of them won their elections.
“These deserters did not win because of their pedigree or financial muscles but simple because of the ticket they ran on and by the grace of millions of people that vowed to see the end to the ‘entitlement mentality’ of a few cabal.
“Nigerians invested their tears and blood; their all to see these changes, entrusted their future on these neophyte lawmakers hoping that they will represent them well, but sooner than they were initiated into the cabal club with N160 million limousine and other pecuniary allowances running into hundreds of millions, they easily derailed.
“It would be recalled that a Labour Party Women Leader in Kaduna State, Victoria Chintex was assassinated in 2022 while working for candidates of the party in the state including one Okada rider, Donatus Mathew, who eventually won as a member of the House of Reps for Kaura constituency.
“In his case, he said he defected because he is the sole Labour Party member in the whole of Northwest region and not because the party is in any crisis. Hon Mathew practically spit on the grave of late Chantex and disrespected thousands of party members in Kaduna who toiled to elect him into position of power.
“This is why the party, arising from a recent unfortunate activity, did say that ‘the beautiful ones are not yet born’. In the case of Reps Okere, Akiba, Esosa and Fom, these men got into their positions on a platter as the party issued them solitary tickets, funded their campaigns, stretched backwards to defend them in the tribunal, gifting them waivers and spending fortunes administratively to ensure they were not removed.
“Interestingly, none of these ingrates remembered to send a kobo to the party in their 18 months of their legislative adventure as a way of check-off dues. No support to the party whatsoever since their inauguration. They simply forgot where they were coming from.
“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 party will also approach the Speaker of the House of Representatives to declare vacant the seats occupied by these former Labour Party members in line with the House Rules. It is inappropriate and unacceptable for the these lawmakers to continue to function as representatives of their constituencies illegally.
“The following lawmakers include 1. Senator Francis Ezenwa Onyewuchi (Imo East) 2. Reps Bassey Akiba (Calabar Municipality/ Odukpani Federal Constituency) 3. Reps Tochukwu Okere (Owerri Federal Constituency), 4. Reps. Donatus Mathew (Kaura Federal Constituency.), 5. Reps Iyawe Esosa (Oredo Federal Constituency) and Daulyop Fom (Plateau). These lawmakers will feature prominently in the register.
“On that note, we will call on Nigerians to beware of these genre of politicians lacking in clear democratic ideology and ethos rather than ‘Jumpology’ ideology; jumping from one party to the other, in disregard to the enabling laws and without any ideological leaning.
“If we really want this democracy to thrive, we must isolate these political merchants and opportunists and help bury their mercantilist political enterprise by snubbing, affronting and rejecting them in future polls having exhibited grave level of character deficit by betraying public trust.”
By Sunny Igboanugo
Today, November 6, 2025, the campaigns end for all the political parties that will participate in the governorship election, scheduled for Saturday. These parties have put their messages out and now it is decision time. That decision is in your hands. The fate of Anambra is firmly in your hands. How do you go?
But as you ruminate on what you have heard these past few weeks and months it is apposite to pause, take a deep breath and look at the issues clearly. You must reflect on how the journey started, where you were yesterday, where you are today and where you are likely to be tomorrow, given the variables before you. Take time to look at all sides of the coin.
Four years ago, faced with the same setting you donated your votes to Charles Chukwuma Soludo. You didn’t make that choice in a vacuum against a set of agreements. Now rev your minds and recall the key issues against which you took that vital position and ponder on them. I’ll help you.
Security: Were you not promised that thenceforth, you were going to sleep with both eyes closed? Are you doing so today?
Lest we forget: In December 2024, Reverend Father Emmanuel Obimma, the outspoken Catholic cleric, popularly known as Ebubemuonso declared Charles Chukwuma Soludo as possessed of a reprobate spirit. Please, google what that expression means. I’ve just done and what I found are not palatable at all. Now, why would a clergyman, no less a Catholic cleric, known for reticence and measured approach go that far to use such an extreme phrase to capture the persona of the governor?
The answers are not farfetched. At the time Ebubemuonso spoke, he was reflecting on the parlous state of security in the state, occasioned by the massive carnage, kidnappings and other forms of high crimes and the apparent insensitivity, if not the complicity of the government of Soludo towards tackling it.
In fact, at that time, one of the brother-priests of the vocal cleric, who just returned to Nigeria from the US, was undergoing a testy time in the hands of kidnappers who abducted him at a filling station, where he had packed to buy petrol.
Just as the wincing of the abducted priest was reverberating across the state and beyond, news again broke of another high-profile case – the seizure of Justice Azuka, member representing Onitsha North 1 constituency at the Anambra State House of Assembly, with the government, still, paying scant heed to the development.
Obimma’s heightened frustration was therefore not only obvious, but understandable. He also not only spoke out, but loudly and clearly. Against the backdrop of his palpably lacerating comments, the government was finally roused to action from its hitherto slumbering mode.
The result, after unleashing a horde of attack dogs against the priest and the few other compatriots, who cared to speak out, was the birthing of Operation Udogachi, what it termed the Anambra Homeland Security Laws, under which the now dreaded Agunechemba outfit currently operates.
But compatriots, what is the result? Is Anambra State safer today, even with the frenzy and audacious commentaries that flowed ceaselessly from the government? I leave you to answer. But before you do, consider the fate of that lawmaker. Yes! What has happened to those people you were told were the culprits in his abduction and subsequent murder?
Yes! Azuka’s remains were later recovered at the foot of the Second Niger Bridge, Onitsha, several weeks later in February – meaning that he was actually in the confinement of his assailants for a long time without rescue. Yes! A lot of fever was generated by the news of the arrest of the abductors. But how has it ended? The matter, as we say here in Nigeria, has entered voicemail.
Indeed, the last I heard of that case was that some of the said culprits escaped from police custody. Now, you needed hear the circumstances under which they were said to have made good their escape. Even a complete retard – an irredeemable imbecile or Mongolian idiot, would be bemused with their incredulous tale.
But let us assume, though difficult to believe that this official side of this sordid story, is credible, have you heard anything else about the other culprits. Shouldn’t their trial have been concluded before now in court and their fate decided? Has Azuka gotten any form of justice.
Now, I ask, my dear compatriots, is this the government you’re going to endorse on Saturday? Do you not smell a rat? Is it not obvious that something is amiss? Can you trust this government? You must consider the answers to these questions. It is not only imperative; you have a right to ask them as well as provide the answers. Yes! It is your right!
Economy:
Lest we forget: By this time four years ago, you were told that in four years, Anambra would be transformed into the Dubai-Taiwan of Africa. Has that happened? Is there any part of Anambra State that resembles Abuja, Accra or even Lome, not to talk about Dubai or Taiwan? Is there any likelihood that in the next 50 years at the pace of development any part of Anambra would look a fraction of Dubai? Aren’t you smelling deceit? Senator Natasha’s Airport antics and the theatre of distraction
Today, having failed woefully to deliver, they have tactfully changed the narrative. They now tell you that they are building the FOUNDATION. Foundation? Is it in the Uga-Amawbia Road – that unending project that is already undergoing patches and rehabilitation in many areas even before it is concluded?
Compatriots, take a drive through major streets in Awka, Nnewi, Onitsha and other major places in Anambra to understand the psychology and philosophy of the Soludo government. It’ll explain the obvious panic mode that you see today around Soludo and his officials. You’ll begin to realise the reason for you to apply your votes wisely on Saturday.
Ask yourself, what would make a government go into the frenzy of knocking down people’s buildings, and business places including INNOSON Motors Showroom on the pretence of dualising their road, only to engage in the horse and buggy pace the project has witnessed?
You must have heard about the Anyamelum hospital saga, where your dear governor, claimed to have commissioned the “first-ever General Hospital. Lacing it with salt and pepper, our dear Charlie Nwa Mgbafor regaled his audience with the seducing tale of how he not only personally visited the patients upon whom four surgeries were performed “in one day, free of charge,” but gave them “something” for their transportation back home?
Didn’t you hear how this tale was busted no sooner thereafter with video evidence that your governor lied and that the hospital was still in fact uncompleted, let alone having the more than 200 patients and the 65 staff the governor claimed? How does that resonate with you.
Compatriots! Did you also miss the drama of communities donating money to his campaigns? How much did you contribute in the N250 million your community contributed in aide of support for him to return as governor. My Ogidi compatriots, how much did you donate? Was it to thank the governor for abandoning your community that was almost swallowed by flood recently.
To you students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, you were said to have also donated from your savings to “encourage” your governor and to thank him. It was your gesture of gratitude that he has refused to grant you bursary award or any form of financial relief.
Welfare:
Lest we forget: Compatriots, are you aware that Anambra is among the very few states in Nigeria that is not paying minimum wage. What do you say to a professor who knows the difference between the quality of money as against the quantity of money posting such a dismal outing?
Ndi-Anambra, I do not wish this letter to be too long. So, let me stop here. But before then, you may have heard your governor suggest that only first-class brains in terms of education are fit to govern you. He readily cites Nnamdi Azikiwe, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Akwaeke Abyssinia Nwafor Orizu, Chinua Achebe and the rest. But let me ask which of these great sons of the land has he mimicked in terms of courage and character.
Zik, it was who confronted the white man and brought independence to Nigeria. Ojukwu, for three good years commanded an army which withstood the whole world – Nigeria, Egypt, United Kingdom, United States and even Russia, who either took direct part in the attempt to annihilate his people or provided deadly weapons to carry out the blitzkrieg that became their lot under the Biafran effort.
What about Nwafor Orizu? Please read up his historic courage as Senate President during the January 1966 coup saga. Now, were you not here when twice, Chinua Achebe threw the national honours awarded him by the Federal Government to their faces? Could this be said of your governor?
If high education is all it takes to be in governance why should the most arguably educated and endowed governor be trembling before a President whose own certificates have remained a subject of controversy and who has not shown publicly proof of primary school education, let alone other levels such attainments, simply because you rely on him for your second term. Where is the courage – the character of Zik, Ikemba and Ugobelunenuoji?
Yes! Our dear governor is a Professor of Economics – of world renown at that – consulting for the highest global institutions. But where has that led us? How better is he head-on with those he claimed to be illiterates and should never be allowed near governance. Has he discharged himself in anyway to suggest his best-brain education?
If yes, in what way? Is it in awarding road contracts? Even a confirmed retard could put pen on paper to award contracts for roads and other projects – not to talk of those that have managed their own businesses, employed labour and empowered people therefrom. So, where does the education bragging rights derive? Wherein lies the prestige of high education when all we see is the crudest form of government business.
Would Zik, et al, condone the breaking of people’s spines with aka-odo or engage in market-women altercations such as we have witnessed today? Would Achebe be silent after the NYSC lady was stripped to her birthday suit? Ponder on this, my people. You have more than 72 hours to do so.
As you approach the polling booth to cast your votes, ask yourself, where are the Ocha Brigade men that slaughtered four people in Onitsha, including a pregnant woman? What has happened to the culprits that killed the Owelle Ezukala three and other victims of trigger-happy state-sponsored actors? Where are those who killed Okechukwu Akanaeme? How come nobody has heard about the ruffians that stripped the NYSC lady?
Since Dubai-Taiwan is no longer feasible or possible, the next question is what next? What will be the fate of Anambra in the hands of Soludo, four years on if you donate that vote to him? Would you risk it? Think about it!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo – The Tiny Voice!
President Bola Tinubu has declared a state of emergency on the training facilities of Nigeria’s internal security agencies, citing their severely outdated condition and concerns about operational effectiveness.
The declaration covers training institutions operated by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and other domestic security agencies across the country.
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The announcement came as a high-level National Economic Council (NEC) ad-hoc committee, led by Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah, conducted on-site inspections of security training facilities in Lagos on Tuesday.
Governor Mbah revealed the president’s decision during the facility tour, emphasizing the urgency of addressing the deteriorating infrastructure.
“President Bola Tinubu has announced a state of emergency regarding the training facilities of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and other internal security agencies,” Governor Mbah stated. “He highlighted the necessity for this action due to the facilities’ outdated state, which raises concerns about their effectiveness.”
Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun, who joined the inspection tour, disclosed that the committee has been given a tight 30-day timeline to submit a comprehensive report to the National Economic Council for action.
The committee’s membership includes former Inspector General of Police Alkali Usman Baba, who serves as secretary, and Assistant Inspector General of Police Olatunji Disu, who oversees the Special Protection Unit (SPU).
The state of emergency declaration reflects growing concern that inadequate training infrastructure may be undermining the preparedness and professionalism of Nigeria’s security forces at a time when the country faces multiple security challenges, including insurgency in the northeast, banditry in the northwest, and kidnapping across various regions.
Outdated facilities typically lack modern training equipment, proper accommodation for recruits, adequate classrooms, and contemporary simulation technologies essential for preparing security personnel for complex operational environments.
The NEC committee is expected to assess the extent of infrastructural decay, determine funding requirements for comprehensive rehabilitation, and propose a roadmap for bringing the facilities up to international standards.
The 30-day deadline suggests the administration views the reform of security training infrastructure as an urgent national priority requiring immediate intervention.
The last hours are nigh! Here is another chance! Open letter to Ndi-Anambra
Senator Natasha’s Airport antics and the theatre of distraction
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