LP reacts to ‘Southwest chapter’ defection to APC

The Labour Party, LP, has reacted to the purported defection of some of its members and supporters to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

At a ceremony held in Adegbemile Hall in Akure, the Ondo State capital, some members of South West chapter of the party announced their resignation of LP membership.

However, the party said the defection is insignificant as it was the moving of a few persons led by an expelled official of the party.

A statement by Mrs Remilekun Ojo, Ondo State Chairman of the Labour Party, said the event was attended by “a few dozen people” who claimed to be the South-West chapter of the party.

The politicians on Monday announced they were “collapsing” the Labour Party in the region into the All Progressive Congress (APC) immediately.

“As expected, the meeting was chaired by an expelled member [of LP], Mr Banji Omotoso, who was the then Caretaker State Chairman in Ekiti State from 2017 to 2019,” Ojo noted.

The statement stressed that the LP in the South-West and in the six geopolitical regions “remains one and indivisible.”

Under no circumstances will the party think of merging with any party, “not even the APC that has brought untold hardship and suffering to the nation,” she stated.

As for Omotoso, the so-called “Southwest coordinator,” Ojo avowed that he was sacked for “gross malfeasance and anti-party activities” in January 2020 and ceased to have anything to do with the party and therefore has no authority to speak for or on behalf of the LP.