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By Myke Agunwa
The Senator representing the Federal Capital (FCT), Sen. Ireti Kingibe has announced that her days are numbered in the Labour Party (LP) adding that she will formally join the coalition party under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) at the right time and with fanfare.
The lawmaker who spoke with journalists over the weekend during a meeting between the leadership of ADC and state chairmen said that the intractable faction in LP constitutionally justifies the move.
She added that her formal declaration to ADC would be done at the appropriate time.
Asked if she has resigned from the LP, she responded, “I’m totally and completely committed to ADC. But obviously, as the senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, don’t expect me to just take a lunch break and go and collect card. I want to do so with noise and fanfare.”
When asked if she was satisfied with the leadership of ADC and the coalition she was joining, she said, “It’s something that is evolving. So you cannot say while your child is still crawling that you are not happy with how he’s going to run. You wait. We are growing.”
But when reminded that her defection might cost her seat at the Red chambers she responded that Labour Party has been factionalised at the national level, creating confusion and opening the door for seamless defection.
“I ask you to please read the constitution. There are two factions clearly of Labour Party. The perfect definition that the constitution gives for somebody to decamp without penalty.
“So you say I should stay in Labour Party. Which faction of Labour Party do you want me to stay in?
“There are two clear distinct ones. Even INEC got two sets of results and candidates, though they didn’t accept any. There’s no question of that.
“Even the time when we didn’t have two clear factions, did you see anybody implementing it?
“But I do follow the law. And if there were not two distinct factions of Labour Party, I would not presume to decamp, because that is unconstitutional. But they are.
“And this is the definition that the constitution gave, why it would be okay to decamp to anywhere I wanted to go to. I just chose ADC,” Kingibe said.
Earlier in July, Kingibe publicly described the LP as “too fractured, broken to win any election” and confirmed she was aligned with the ADC-led opposition coalition and hinted that her defection was likely but stopped short of an official announcement.