The multipurpose vehicle and platform for the newly formed national coalition aimed at ousting the administration of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency come 2027 has gained another prominent politician with Senator Ireti Kingibe dumping the Labour Party (LP) for the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Speaking to journalists in a viral video seen by The Nation, Kingibe, who represents the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, said she opted for ADC because of the division in the Labour Party (LP).
She said her formal defection would be marked with fanfare at the appropriate time. Responding to a question, Kingibe said: “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.
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.”
Responding to concerns that her defection might cost her the Senate seat based on constitutional provisions, Kingibe said the Labour Party has since split into two factions, a situation she argued legally allowed her to move.
“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 about 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 there 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.
Kingibe was one of the several prominent Nigerian political figures spotted at the unveiling of ADC as the platform of the opposition coalition in Abuja on July 2.
