‘The party is factionalised’ — Ireti Kingibe explains why she dumped LP for ADC
Ireti Kingibe, the senator representing the federal capital territory (FCT), says she dumped the Labour Party (LP) for the African democratic congress (ADC) due to the crisis in her party.
Kingibe said that her defection was deliberate and would be formalised with “fanfare”, noting that she is 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. I want to do so with noise and fanfare,” Kingibe 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.”
Speaking on the reasons for her defection, Kingibe said the labour party is currently split into two factions, noting that the situation granted her the legal rights to decamp.
“I ask you to please read the constitution. There are two factions clear of Labour Party. The perfect definition that the constitution gives for somebody to decamp without penalty,” she said.
“So, you say I should stay in Labour Party. Which faction of the 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 of 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 they 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 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.
