The lawmaker representing Imo-East Senatorial District, Ezenwa Onyewuchi, has dumped the Labour Party (LP), for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Gatekeepers News reports that the announcement was made during a plenary session on Tuesday.
Onyewuchi left the party one year after winning the 2023 senatorial election on the platform of the opposition party.
In his letter of defection, Onyewuchi also declared his support for President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
“This decision is due to the intractable division and crisis in the Labour Party that sponsored my election into the senate.
“We give our unflinching support to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and of course, support his administration aimed at achieving sustainable development for our country,” the letter partly read.
Onyewuchi’s defection letter was read on the floor of the red chamber by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday.
Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo and chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), was in the chamber when the letter was read.
Also, a member representing Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, in the House of Representatives, Idris Salman, on Tuesday, defected to the All Progressives Congress.
The announcement was made during a plenary session on Tuesday, where the letter of defection was read by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas.
Salman was elected in the 2023 National Assembly election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress.
He said he decided after consultation with his constituents to defect to the APC.
“I took this decision after wide-range consultation with members of my constituency,” the lawmaker said.
Amid cheers from APC lawmakers, the Minority Whip of the House, Ali Isah, urged the Speaker to declare Salman’s seat vacant, urging him to seek the nomination of his new party if he wishes to return to the legislative chamber.
The call was ignored as the House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere, took him to shake hands with some APC lawmakers present at the plenary.
