The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has insisted that the 27 Rivers House of Assembly lawmakers who left the party for the All Progressives Congress (APC) have forfeited their seats and thus no longer members of the state legislature.
The 27 members of the House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, had defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC, citing division in the PDP as the reason for the move.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in its reaction asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately commence the process of conducting fresh elections into the 27 state constituencies in Rivers State over defections by their lawmakers.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, in a statement, said a new election should be held as a result of the vacancies created when the state lawmakers willfully abandoned their seats by defecting from to the APC.
The PDP held that by defecting from the party to the APC, the seats of the 27 former lawmakers had become vacant by the provision of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
The ruling party in Rivers urged the lawmakers to stop parading themselves as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly as such would amount to impersonation with criminal consequences.
While corroborating the position of the Publicity Secretary, the PDP National Legal Adviser, Adeyemi Ajibade, SAN, on Thursday said though President Bola Tinubu might have waded in the dispute between the Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, the party stood on what the constitution says on defection.
While addressing newsmen shortly after Justice Donatus Okorowo of a Federal High Court, Abuja, adjourned the embattled lawmakers’ suit until January 24, 2024, Ajibade said;
“PDP as a party, we are standing on the side of the constitution of the country.
“It is not about issues of an agreement because by the constitution, we all sworn to uphold.
“The governor himself sworn to uphold the constitution likewise the president; I am not against the president, calling for the resolution of the matter. He is the chief security officer of this country and he has every right to intervene in the issue.”
The senior lawyer said aside from that, the constitution of the country is very clear; Section 109 (1g) is clear as to issues of detection, adding that the affected lawmakers had not denied that they had not defected.
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