The Deputy Spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Hon. Philip Agbese, has said his decision to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the opposition Labour Party (LP) was driven by the wishes of his constituents.
Agbese, who represents Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency of Benue State, formally announced his defection on the floor of the House on Tuesday.
Addressing the media, Agbese, who is the first member of the 10th House to leave the ruling party since its inauguration in June 2023, dismissed speculations linking his defection to a governorship ambition in Benue State.
“Well, first and foremost, let me thank the people of Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency for the opportunity to be here. And secondly, we are about to kick start another round of the tournament, and the people, of course, having critically examined the machinery that brought us here, and they realised some faults, have decided to board another plane, which is the Labour Party.
“So let me thank Her Excellency, Senator Nenadi Usman, the national chairman of the Labour Party, and the entire leadership, for accepting us to be part of the Labour family.”
He added, “I want to categorically put it on record that our defection is about service to our people. It is about making ourselves available again for service come 2027 and our people, the largest population of our people, have taken a very firm position, to say that the Labour Party is the only available vehicle that will take us to the expected destination, come 2027, and as a servant of the people, we have no choice than to be part of the Labour family. That is why we’re here today.”
Agbese, who described himself as the new political leader of the party in Benue, pledged loyalty to the LP and ruled out importing internal wrangling from his former party.
“This is a new family. I’m just coming in, and as the new political leader of the party in Benue state, we also have our national leader, His Excellency, Dr Alex Otti.
“He is the national leader of this great party. So I think there is a need for us to step down our old behaviour from the APC, wear a new lens and see things differently. So, not until we do that, we don’t really know, but I believe that Her Excellency Senator Nenadi Usman has accepted me into this party and to lead the party to victory.”
On the party’s electoral strategy, he said, “Basically, our strategies are going to be centred on her. The Labour Party is going to win the elections in Benue State.
“Of course, we don’t know who is going to be the presidential candidate of the party, but I know that the Labour Party will be contesting all the elections in Benue state, and if we decide to adopt Mr President (Bola Tinubu), we’re also going to make sure that Mr President wins Benue state.
“We’ll constitute our campaign Council in Benue state, launch it and ensure that we work, if we adopt Mr President as our candidate, and work for other candidates that the party is going to adopt.
“What I can say is that it is not the time to fight. It is time to win elections. And that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing. So I think the strategy for winning the election and the strategy for fighting are two different things; now it is time to win the election.”
Explaining why he did not join the African Democratic Congress, Agbese said the decision reflected the preference of his constituents.
“The people of my Federal Constituency are completely different kinds of people. They respect multi-party democracy.
“Today, my Federal Constituency is one of the most vibrant constituencies in the country, because we have the Labour Party today, which, of course, in the Federal Constituency is the ruling party.
“We have the PDP, the ADC, and the APC. I think it is not about the name of the political party. It is about the people, and the majority of our people are much more at home with the Labour Party than all the other political parties.”
He added, “Let me inform you that we commenced the registration exercise of the Labour Party just about eight days ago, and across the three local government areas, we have recorded over 10,000 memberships, beating the membership register of all the political parties that were there before us.”
