Defection: Labour Party Asks INEC, Senate to Declare OmoAgege’s Seat Vacant

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

Following the defection of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege to the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday, his former party, Labour Party, has asked the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately declare his seat vacant.

The Labour Party also asked the INEC “to set in motion processes to organise election within the next 60 days to fill the vacant seat as required by law.

Omo-Agege had while declaring for APC at the plenary, had claimed that his decision to leave the LP for the APC was supported by leaders and members of his constituents in Delta State

He further stated that there was a division within the national leadership of LP; with Comrade Bobo Atare Adou and Alhaji Abdukadir Salam now simultaneously laying claim to the national chairman of the party.

However, in reacting to the defection, Labour Party’s National Public Secretary, Ebere Ifendu, told journalists yesterday at the party national secretariat that the claim of division within the party by the senator Omo-Agege was not true.

She said an alleged division in the party was nothing but a figment of the senator’s imagination, adding that it was on record that the senator sponsored some hoodlums and non-party members to protest at the party office and later claimed to have removed the party leadership.

“As a party, we will challenge his decision to steal the mandate of the Labour Party through the back door in court. We hereby request the Senate President to declare his seat vacant and that INEC should immediately organise election within the next sixty days to fill the vacant seat as required by the law section 68 (1) and 190 of electoral law,” she said.

According to Ifendu, “it is most unfortunate that a person that is expected to be distinguished will go this far in order to subvert the will of the people through the sponsorship of thugs so he could carry out his illegal act of decamping.”

The party spokesperson recalled that the party had alerted the public that Omo-Agege was responsible for the breach of peace experienced at the party national secretariat last week where some persons protested against the National Chairman, Abdukardir Abdulsalam.

She, however, described the action of the senator as highly despicable and unbecoming of a member of the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly. She called on the defecting senator to accept the reality that he no more represents the interest of his people at the Senate and as such should leave honorably so that the people can pick his replacement.