By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The political fortunes of the Labour Party in the Northern Nigeria have continued to blossom as the Deputy Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Isaac Auta Zankai and the member representing Zaria State Constituency, Hon. Suleiman Dabo, have defected from the All Progressives Congress to the Labour Party.
Prompt News reports that the Deputy Speaker who is representing the Kauru State Constituency in the state Assembly may have seen his future in the Labour Party and has decided to take a step of faith.
The National Secretary of the Labour Party and Chairman of the Governorship Campaign Council, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, made the announcement of the honourable members while inaugurating the party’s 450-Member Governorship Campaign Council and the unveiling of its manifesto in Kaduna on Thursday.
Ibrahim boasted that half of the State House of Assembly members were “Obi-Datti” apostles, noting that the support received from the calibre of personalities in the state, was an indication that the party was on the march to taking over political power both in the state and the national levels in the forthcoming general elections.
Said he: “sincerely speaking, today is one of the happiest moments in my life. I have gone around to campaign for our presidential candidate, Peter Obi and I have received great receptions.
“I am particularly impressed by the calibres of personalities that grace this inauguration. In the entire northern states, we don’t have any personality that dumps APC and join Labour Party except in Kaduna State with the Deputy Speaker and another member from Zaria state constituency.”
The LP scribe also urged members of the party in the state to close ranks and unite so as to coast to victory in the forthcoming elections.
He counselled Nigerian youths, who formed the bulk of the Labour Party not to relent until Obi-Datti formed the next administration in the country as according to him, “power resides with the youths.”
Also speaking at the event, the LP governorship candidate in the state, Hon. Jonathan Asake, described the Labour Party Movement as “divine”, urging members of the campaign council to see their membership as a “call to service,” considering the current mood of the nation.
“This is a call to service because the mood in the nation is that the Labour Party must take over the nation. The mood of the nation is nothing other than the readiness of the youths to take over Kaduna and Nigeria so that the country will be a production nation and not a consuming nation.
“This is a divine movement and God’s hand is in the movement. May peace comes to Nigeria so that we may not experience hunger, or kidnapping again,” Asake, who was also a former member of the House of Representatives, added.