The Labour Party leadership says Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has no plan to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The national spokesperson of the LP, Obiora Ifoh, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
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NAN reports that rumours have been rife over plans by at least five first-term opposition governors to defect to APC, preparatory to the 2027 general elections.
According to media reports, the governors are Alex Otti of Abia, Peter Mbah, Enugu; Sheriff Oborevwori, Delta; Siminalayi Fubara, Rivers; and Umo Eno, Akwa Ibom.
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While Messrs Mbah, Fubara, Eno, and Oborevwori are PDP governors, Mr Otti belongs to the LP, with both parties currently locked in post-2023 election crises.
Mr Ifoh, in the interview, however, said that the purported plan by Governor Otti to dump the LP for the APC was farther from the truth.
“It is a mere rumour, and I hope it remains so. For us in the Labour Party, we are in touch with our governor, Dr Alex Otti, and he has assured us that he is not going anywhere ahead of 2027.
“We believe that he will stay with us, irrespective of some of the issues which we are working hard to resolve,” he said.
The spokesperson, who said that defection from one political party to another was nothing new in any democratic setting, however, said that Mr Otti was not thinking about teaming up with the ruling APC.
“The courts have come up several times to make interpretation as regards Section 84 of the 1999 Constitution and many people who had defected at one time or the other had been challenged in court.
“So, if five governors are planning to defect, it won’t be a new thing, as it had happened in the past,” he said.
Mr Ifoh attributed the rumoured defection to the fact that some opposition governors had been having challenges controlling their states.
He insisted that the speculated rumour of the only LP governor had no substance or validity.
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“We are good in Labour Party, and our governor is with us, and we are hoping that by 2027, we will have more governors in our fold,” he said.
NAN recalls that a recent media report indicated that the body language of some governors, particularly from PDP, was tilting toward moving to the ruling APC.
The report further indicated that some governors have either been visiting President Bola Tinubu privately or having him inaugurate projects in their states.
It was also reported that the Progressives Governors’ Forum Chairperson, Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, had been wooing the opposition governors to join the APC.
