The lawmaker representing the Igboeze South State Constituency in Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon Harrison Ogara, says he is not thinking about decamping to the Peoples Democratic Party or any other party without the consent of his constituents.
Hon Ogara spoke against the gale of defection that had befallen the Labour Party in Enugu State, the latest being the decamping of its governorship candidate in the 2023 general election, Hon Chijioke Edeoga. Edeoga, a former spokesman of the House of Representatives, was received back into the PDP fold by Gov Peter Mbah on Tuesday.
Ogara told THE WHISTLER in a weekend interview, “Nothing is ever permanent in life. Decamping, as it were, is not terribly terrible. What is terrible is that you move without your people. It is terrible when you don’t hear from them. You don’t even woo them to go with them.
“Doing that amounts to betrayal. It is an injustice to those of them who took bullets because of you. In the face of persecution, they remained resolute in voting and protecting their votes. If you find it not funny, even where you are going and giving similar opportunities, you will still do the same. It means you don’t have a stable character. In general terms, it means one is chaff being directed by the winds. Until my people say it is time to move, I will not move.”
He said he remained firm with his people, adding that “the only way I will pay them back is by being with them. If we are losing, we lose together. If we are winning, we win together.”
The lawmaker admitted that his party had been a victim of defection but expressed optimism that the formidability of LP was still intact “because power lies with the people and not the people in power”.
Quoting him, “We have lost substantial members of our party. We used to be the majority with 14 Assembly members, out of which we lost two through the court. Out of the remaining 12, six decamped to the PDP. Out of the remaining six, Bright Ngene, representing Enugu South Urban, was imprisoned. We remain five. The fifth person, from Isi-Uzo, is trying to go because of the decamping of LP’s guber candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, to the PDP recently.
“We are doing our best as an opposition. We are formidable. What are we supposed to do in the face of let-it-go without proper legislation? We try to point out errors that are present in some of the bills. We have become minorities, as it were, in the face of all this decamping. But we don’t allow people to take over our position as a minority. You still see PDP taking majority and minority positions. These are politics.”
On the strength of LP in the state, Ogara said, “LP is still formidable. The power of the people on the street is stronger than the power of the people in power. If you think that when one man goes, LP crashes, it is a wrong impression and assumption. People who worked for LP during the 2023 elections were organic. They came out on their own volition to be a part of change.
“LP is still strong. If they think LP has fallen, let them do a free and fair election. Some want to hijack the apparatuses to rig elections and then term the unprivileged weak. Manipulating police, INEC, the army and the court is hypocrisy of the highest order.”
