Senator Ireti Kingibe representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the National Assembly, has become the first senator and member of the National Assembly to officially defect to the opposition coalition party, African Democratic Congress (ADC).
She was originally elected in 2023 on the platform of Labour Party.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja Kingibe who promised that her formal induction into the ADC would be marked with fanfare said:
“I’m totally and completely committed to ADC,” she affirmed. “But obviously, as the senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, don’t expect me to just take a lunch break and go collect a card. I want to do so with noise and fanfare.”
While expressing confidence in the opposition ADC to tackle the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Kingibe said:
“It’s something that is evolving,” she said. “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.”
Senator Kingibe dismissed insinuations that her defection to ACD would cause her problems in the Senate on the note that the Labour Party is already factionalised.
“I ask you to please read the constitution. There are two factions — clear factions — of Labour Party,” Kingibe said. “The perfect definition that the constitution gives for somebody to decamp without penalty applies in this case.”
“Even INEC got two sets of results and candidates, though they didn’t accept any. So if you ask me to stay in Labour Party, which faction do you want me to stay in?”
“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 the constitution gave why it would be okay to decamp to anywhere I wanted to go. I just chose ADC.”
