The Labour Party has announced plans to take legal action against four of its members in the House of Representatives who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The defectors—Chinedu Okere, Mathew Donatus, Akiba Bassey, and Esosa Iyawe—had their defection revealed on Thursday by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, who cited “internal crisis” within the Labour Party as the reason for their decision.

In response, the party’s spokesman, Obiora Ifoh, stressed that no one has the right to abandon the party’s mandate. “Though the Labour Party leadership is undaunted by the defection, it has, however, elected not to allow it to slide and has therefore instructed its legal team to commence legal actions against the defectors and to also commence the process of regaining our mandates in line with the 1999 Constitution and the 2022 Electoral Act as amended,” Ifoh said.

Ifoh further stated, “There is absolute peace in the Labour Party. Therefore, no one elected on the ticket of the Labour Party has the constitutional protection to decamp from the party along with the party’s mandate.”