A member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Segun Olulade, this Friday, ridiculed the six members of the House who were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last Thursday.
The APC lawmaker in an interactive forum monitored in Lagos this Friday by National Daily, acknowledged that politics and democracy accommodate agreement and disagreement among members of a political party. He maintained that such disagreement does not translate to conflicts.
Olulade maintained that the primary responsibility of any elected politician is to provide service for the people he or she represents, adding that the politician has responsibility to jealously guard the mandate given to him by the people.
“If you are a politician, the first thing that comes to your mind is service; service to the people you represent. So, you have to jealously guard the mandate given to you,” Olulade declared.
He, however, said that this may be the rationale behind the decision of the six PDP legislators to decamp to APC last Thursday. “I think that is what the PDP lawmakers have considered in their defections,” Olulade remarked.
The APC lawmaker also declared: “I must be sincere…, in politics, we agree and disagree.
This is politics and this is democracy. If you have any dissatisfaction as a member of a
political party, you have the right to voice it out, express your feelings. That does not mean we are cracking.” Olulade revealed that initially, there were five lawmakers that wrote letters for defection but that on the floor of the House, six lawmakers stood up for defection. He reiterated that “when you are representing the people, when have the mandate of the people, what will concern you most is the people you are serving.”
One of the PDP lawmakers that defected to APC, Jude Idimogwu representing Oshodi-Isolo 1, had earlier in the same interactive forum said that they defected to the APC because of the crisis in the PDP. He also said that they were also provoked for being ignored by PDP leaders in the state who did not invite to commend them for being ambassadors of the party in the State House of Assembly.
“We defected because of the crisis in our PDP, which is still continuing,” Idimogwu stated.
He further said: since we were elected into the House, our party leaders have not invited us for interaction as their ambassador in Lagos State, they abandoned us.”
Moreover, Idimogwu admitted that the fear of the unknown added to his decision to defect to the ruling party. “I am looking at my future, politics is my business at the moment,” he said.
The lawmaker further said he told the people he represents that he will be more secured to serve them if he belongs to the ruling political party. “I don’t have better voice when I am in opposition to fight your course; I need a ruling party,” Idimogwu said.
National Daily investigation revealed that the defection of the six PDP lawmakers to APC adds no value to the ruling party. APC had 32 of the 40 lawmakers in the House, that figure already constitute overwhelming majority, including two-thirds majority. So, the additional six lawmakers makes no difference.
At the moment, PDP has only two members in the State House of Assembly.
The defection of the six PDP lawmakers came after weeks of rumour and denials of their defection. The rumour and denials eventually contravened reality when the lawmakers formally announced their defection on the floor of the House on Thursday.
In the letter indicating their defection read by the Acting Clerk of the House, Azeez Sanni, the list of defectors include: Mosunmola Sangodara, Surulere 2; Fatai Oluwa, Ajeromi Ifelodun 2; Dayo Famakinwa, Ajeromi Ifelodun 1; Hakeem Sokunle, Oshodi-Isolo 2; Jude Idimogwu, Oshodi-Isolo 1. Each of the defectors gave reasons for leaving the PDP.
They cited the leadership crisis in the PDP and the outstanding performance of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode as the reasons for their defection.