The lawmaker representing Udi/Ezeagu Federal Constituency of Enugu State in the House of Representatives, Sunday Umeha, has dumped the Labour Party (LP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Umeha announced his defection to the ruling APC at the weekend during a mini-rally at Ibagwa-Aka in Igboeze South Local Government Area, reports The Nation.
At the event, a business mogul and financier of LP in the local government area, Chief Joshua Ogbonna (a.k.a. Father Father), led more than 1,000 members of the party, including the local government structures of the party, into the APC. Umeha said his defection was in solidarity with his friend, Ogbonna.
The lawmaker announced that another rally that would officially usher him into the APC would hold in a few days in Ezeagu.
He also announced his resignation from LP and registration with APC at his ward.
According to him, the intractable division within the LP at the national and state levels was among the reasons he dumped the party for APC.
Umeha is the first APC member to occupy elective position in the state since 2014.
The lawmaker said his decision to join the ruling party was also “because of the need to connect to the centre and bring our people closer because there are a lot of advantages in plugging to the centre”.
He said the APC has served the interest of the Igbo nation better than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the federal level.
APC Leader in Enugu State and Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, who was represented by his governorship running mate during the 2023 general election, George Ogara, said he was elated by the influx of credible and grassroots persons into the ruling party in the state.
Enugu State APC Chairman Ugochukwu Agballah said the party was getting primed to take over the state’s seat of power, the Lion Building, from the PDP in 2027.
Also, the Jigawa State Governor Umar Namadi at the weekend received over 3,000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The governor said the senator representing Jigawa South West, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly members representing Birnin Kudu/Buji, Dutse/Kiyawa and Birnin Kudu federal and state constituencies should start packing their baggage ahead of the 2027 general election.
He said the PDP and NNPP federal and state lawmakers would lose their seats to the APC, going by the gale of defections into the ruling party in the areas.
Namadi spoke the Jigawa State government’s Citizens Engagement Programme (JSGCEP) tagged: “Gwamnati da Jamaa” for Dutse Municipal Local Government Area at the state spots complex in Dutse, the state capital.
He said: “The APC is getting more acceptance and becoming stronger in Jigawa Southwestern zone as a result of the confidence and satisfaction with our government’s human and infrastructural development projects spreading across all the parts of the seven local government areas under the zone.”
“With what happened here today, where over 3,400 of PDP members in Dutse decamped to APC and what we saw in Birnin Kudu and Buji local government areas, all in this senatorial district where we also received dozens of thousands of members of the opposition political parties into our great party, the APC, the senator in this zone, members of the House of Representatives for Birnin Kudu/Buji, Dutse/Kiyawa and Birnin Kudu House of Assembly constituencies to start counting their days in the Red, Green and Jigawa State House of Assembly chambers. The people in their constituencies would vote for APC in 2027, by the grace of God Almighty.
“Let me use this opportunity to deliver President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s message. He asked me to inform you that the ongoing multi-billion Greater Dutse water project would be nonstop until it is completed.
“He also asked me to assure you that the railway project from Kano, Dutse to Damagaram in Niger Republic has reached a significant percentage. You are seeing the quality and the speed of the work. It will soon be completed and inaugurated.
“The federal government has revoked the Kano to Shuwari federal road project and re-awarded it to another company which is already on the site working day and night. It will soon be completed.
“President Tinubu asked me to reassure the people of Dutse and Jigawa State that his government will continue to execute more and more projects to improve the social and economic lives of the people.”
