The Labour Party (LP) has taken legal action following the defection of six members of the House of Representatives to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The latest defection involved Akangbe Illiya, representing Jos South/Jos East of Plateau State, who joined the APC on Thursday. This adds to the growing list of Labour Party lawmakers leaving the party.

In a statement, LP spokesperson Obiorah Ifo described Illiya’s defection as “quite unfortunate and condemnable.”

While acknowledging that the “Constitution guarantees citizens the right to freedom of association,” the party emphasized that 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.”

Obiorah added, “The party has since filed actions in the court to compel the National Assembly leadership to declare the seats of the defected Labour Party lawmakers vacant. The suit also seeks that every salary, emolument, or privilege received, from the date of defection, be returned.”

The party also criticized the lawmakers’ choice of the APC as their destination and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abass, for allegedly failing to act in line with constitutional provisions.

“It is unnecessary to probe why most of the defectors chose the All Progressives Congress (APC) as their destination point and why the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon Tajudeen Abass has refused to respect the provisions of the constitution by declaring their seats vacant,” the statement said.

“However, those politicians who have chosen to abandon the people at this crucial time in their lives are the ones who deserve pity because they have exposed themselves as unworthy of our collective trust going forward,” it added.

In the past two weeks, six Labour Party lawmakers have defected to the APC, citing leadership crises within one of Nigeria’s main opposition parties. The party has vowed to pursue legal remedies to address the defections.

The immediate past Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki has explained why his administration inflated the contract sum for the reconstruction of Benin-Abraka road phase 1c thrice in a year.

had on Thursday reported that the contract sum for 17.5-kilometers road project was inflated from N8 billion to N16.4 billion by the immediate past government of Godwin Obaseki.

Recall that the project manager of the company handling the project, Ifiokebong Ekong, had on Thursday told members of the Physical Assets and Infrastructure, a subcommittee of the Edo State Assets Verification Committee, that the project was awarded in May 2023 with the sum of N8 billion.

Ekong spoke when the subcommittee led by its chairman, Patrick Obahiagbon visited the site while acting on a petition by Edo citizens alleging massive inflation of the contract sum of road.

According to the project manager, the road contract was awarded to Nsik Engineering Company Limited on May 16, 2023, while work commenced in September 2023.

“The company was mobilized with the sum of N2.9 billion, representing 25 percent of the contract sum of N8 billion. After the mobilization, the contract sum was varied, and some amount was added to the initial cost of the project.

“The completion period of the job, which was initially three and half years, was reviewed downward to 18 months (one year and six months).

“The contract sum was initially N8 billion when it was awarded in September 2023, but it was reviewed upward to N12 billion in 2024 and later to the current sum of N16.4 billion in June 2024”,he said.

Reacting, the immediate past Governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki attributed the inflation of the road project thrice a year to the alleged galloping inflation occasioned with the removal of fuel subsidy by the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government.

Obaski, who spoke though his media adviser, Crusoe Osagie opined that the said road contract was awarded around May 2023, when the incumbent President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office.

Osagie statement dated December 13, 2024 was titled, “Revaluation of road contract sum due to galloping inflation caused by gross mismanagement of economy by your APC government at centre, Obaseki tells Okpebholo”.

According to him, the vacuity of the Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo, and his hatchet men was once again laid bare in their latest jaundiced piece, where they made spurious and baseless allegations of road contract inflation, in a desperate attempt to denigrate and rewrite the sterling legacy of the immediate past governor of the State, His Excellency, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.

“The said road contract was awarded around May 2023, when the incumbent President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office. It is on record that immediately after the president took office, the removal of subsidy and the devaluation of the naira occurred, plummeting the naira and driving inflation up by over 300 percent.

“Between May and September 2023, the economy had experienced drastic price increases due to relentless inflation. The price of cement climbed from about N3000 to N15000, fuel jumped from about N190 to over N600 per litre, and a bag of rice which used to be about N23,000 rose to over N100,000. Other items including rods, sand, diesel, and even logistics and manpower skyrocketed astronomically.

“It shouldn’t therefore be surprising that the contract sum for the project, which was initially scheduled to commence in May but only began in September, had to be reviewed. It was revalued the first time because the inflation had just started and had to be reviewed again because the inflation was relentless.

“Unfortunately, the committee is so bias that they decided to orchestrate this blackmail in a desperate effort to tarnish the image of the immediate past governor, while neglecting the fact that the galloping inflation occasioned by the gross mismanagement of the national economy by their own government at the centre was what was responsible for the review and increase in contract sum.

“It is most disappointing and reprehensible that the State Asset Verification Subcommittee on Physical Assets and Infrastructure, would stoop this low just to denigrate and witch-hunt the immediate past governor, His Excellency, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, who is adjudged to be arguably the best governor to have ever governed the State, while resorting to lies and cheap propaganda to achieve this ignoble agenda”,he stated.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the 2024 Edo election, Asue Ighodalo, has threatened to sue the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Jarrett Tenebe, over alleged defamation.

In a letter from the legal firm Banwo & Ighodalo, the PDP gubernatorial candidate accused Tenebe of making false and damaging statements in a widely circulated video against him.

Tenebe, while reacting to the gaffe of Governor Monday Okpebholo during the presentation of the 2025 budget to the state assembly, had accused Ighodalo of stealing billions.

Governor Okpebholo, who appeared before the Edo State House of Assembly on Tuesday, had struggled to read the total sums of the state budget estimate.

The governor, after several attempts to pronounce the figure, said it was confusing him, a comment that drew laughter.

The governor’s gaffe subsequently trended on social media platforms, with many users expressing diverse opinions.

In the video Tenebe released about the incident, he said Obaseki and Ighodalo would not have made such a mistake because they had stolen billions before.

Responding to the circulated video, Ighodalo gave Tenebe seven days to issue a full retraction, a public apology, and assurances that no further defamatory comments would be made.