Jarrett Tenebe, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo, has defended Monday Okpebholo, governor of the state.

On Tuesday, Okpebholo stuttered before lawmakers while reading figures from his 2025 budget proposal.

The governor said the N605 billion appropriation bill represents a 25 percent increase from the 2024 budget.

“The Edo state Appropriation Bill of six billion… 605 billion… 76 million…” Okpebholo began, his hands unsteady and voice quivering in the rarefied assembly.

“Let me take it again. 506 billion… 605 billion… sorry… 776 billion… sorry, it’s confusing me.”

Okpebholo’s admission elicited laughter and murmurs in equal doses from the lawmakers.

Defending the snafu, Tenebe said Okpebholo struggles with figures because he does not know how to steal public funds.

“He is the governor of the state, he is performing and he’ll continue to perform and anybody who does not like his face should go to hell and burn to ashes. Period!”

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour says he will contest the Lagos governorship election in 2027.

Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Lagos during the 2023 election, spoke during an interview on Gold Room anchored by Iyabo Ojo, a Nollywood actress.

The former LP governorship candidate said he would fix the trend of opposition parties fading into silence post-election.

“By God’s grace (I will run for governorship again in 2027). We are working. We gained a lot of traction, saw our mistakes. We saw the loopholes we made, and we’re working on that,” he said.

“I think the biggest mistake that has happened in Lagos politics is after elections, the opposition goes quiet. That is not happening this time.

“We’re in people’s faces. We’re doing our best in terms of health outreaches. We have a micro health insurance plan that we’re taking all across the state where people can get treatment of up to N6,000 for free.

“And just being up-to-date to current affairs and holding the government accountable, calling out when the government is spending our monies in extravagant ways, regardless of the suffering that Nigerians are dealing with.”

Rhodes-Vivour also asked for accountability from Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos.

“So, with the level of suffering that Nigerians are dealing with, Lagosians are dealing with, we need to have accountability and transparency, and our government must be using our money in the most efficient way possible,” he added.

“And that is the work of opposition. So when opposition does that, then the people benefit.”

The Labour Party, on Thursday, revealed that it would request the leadership of the House of Representatives to declare vacant the seats of its former members who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress.

The opposition party also vowed to take legal action against the defecting lawmakers and announced that it had opened a register for members of the House and other elected officials who disgrace the party by switching allegiance to other political platforms.

This was disclosed in a statement issued in Abuja by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh.

Ifoh’s concerns followed the defection of several LP lawmakers in the House to the ruling APC, as their defection letters were read on the floor of the Green Chamber by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, on Thursday.

The members of the House who defected include Tochukwu Okere (Imo), Donatus Mathew (Kaduna), Bassey Akiba (Cross River), Iyawe Esosa (Edo), and Daulyop Fom (Plateau).

In the statement, LP’s National Publicity Secretary said, “The party has also decided to open a ‘Hall of Shame’ register for these lawmakers or any elected official of the party who engages in fraudulent defection without first relinquishing the mandate obtained under the party’s ticket.

“These lawmakers will feature prominently in the register. We call on Nigerians to beware of this genre of politicians, who lack a clear democratic ideology and instead follow a
‘Jumpology’ mentality, hopping from one party to another in disregard of the enabling laws and without any ideological foundation.

“Although the Labour Party leadership remains undaunted by the defections, it has decided not to let it go unchallenged. The party has instructed its legal team to take action against the defectors and begin the process of regaining our mandates in line with the 1999 Constitution and the 2022 Electoral Act as amended.

“The party will also approach the Speaker of the House of Representatives to declare vacant the seats occupied by these former Labour Party members, in line with House rules. It is inappropriate and unacceptable for these lawmakers to continue to function as representatives of their constituencies illegally.”

The party noted that the defectors had “demonstrated a grave level of character deficit by betraying public trust,” adding that “if we want this democracy to thrive, we must isolate these political merchants and opportunists, and help bury their mercantilist political enterprises by snubbing, affronting, and rejecting them in future elections.”

The LP spokesman further stated that Section 68(g) of the 1999 Constitution is clear on when a lawmaker can defect and the consequences when a lawmaker, sponsored by a political party, decides to switch allegiance.

He recalled that since the formation of LP in 2002, the party had been active on the political scene, having previously produced a governor and several elected officials across various levels of government.