Senator Kelvin Chukwu representing Enugu East Senatorial district in the National Assembly, has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) dumping the Labour party( LP) the platform he was elected on.
President of the Senate, Sen Godswill Akpabio who announced the defection on Wednesday during plenary said it was due to the leadership crisis in the Labour Party.
Akpabio while reading the defection letter mocked the opposition and urged more lawmakers in the opposition camp to cross over to the ruling party.
Chukwu was elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP), following the assassination of his elder brother, Oyibo Chukwu, who had been the Labour Party’s candidate for the district in the build up to the 2023 General Elections.
It could be recalled that on September 25, 2025, Chukwu had announced his defection to the ruling APC at a town hall meeting with constituents in his hometown of Amuri, citing a prolonged crisis within the Labour Party.
He is from the Amuri community in the Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State.
The election of Chukwu in place of his slain elder sibling, was viewed as a significant victory for the Labour Party in the southeastern region.
However, his defection has been met with mixed reactions as it is being interpreted as a betrayal of thise who fought hard to deliver massive support to him in the form of sympathy votes.
Leader of the Senate Minority Caucus, Senator Abba Moro (PDP/ Benue South) acknowledged the right of legislators to defect to new political parties or remain with the parties upon whose platforms they were elected but disputed a portion of the defection Peter where Chukwu claimed that he consulted widely before he took the decision.
Moro said, Chukwu did not consult him as the leader of the Minority Caucus and express doubts if he consulted those who elected him to the National Assembly. He said that in spite of the series of defection from the opposition to the ruling party, the Minority Caucus will continue to play its role in the legislative chamber.
” I want to say that no matter the number that are here, we are capable of holding our own. You said all politics are local. Those who are gravitating towards the majority side are exercising their rights. But my brother and friend, Kevin, who has just left the third row here to go to the last row there, i wish him good luck but Mr President when it was announced that he was going and he said he had made adequate consultations I asked a question who has he consulted because he didn’t talk to me and I do know that because our politics is local my brother came here on the wings of the Obedient Movement. He came here on the sympathy votes because an accident happened but that is a story for another day.
“So on that note, I want to say, for the rest of us that are here, Mr. President, we are satisfied that we are still here and we will try to remain here until 2027,” he said.
With this development, the configuration of political parties in the Red Chamber is now as follows: APC- 73, PDP- 28, LP- 04, APGA- 02, SDP- 01 and NNPP-01.
