Rivers Assembly: PDP Demands Conduct Of Fresh Elections In 27 Constituencies Over Defection Of Lawmakers
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has 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.
Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State earlier met with the members of the State Executive Council at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The emergency meeting followed the defection of 27 members of the 32-member House of Assembly from the governing PDP to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, in a statement, in Abuja, on Monday said the call for the election followed the vacancies created when “27 former (Rivers) state lawmakers” willfully abandoned their seats by defecting from to the APC.
The party explained that by defecting from the PDP to the APC, the seats of the 27 former lawmakers have become vacant by the provision of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
PDP 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.
The statement partly reads, “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) demands that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should immediately commence the process of conducting fresh elections into the 27 State Constituencies in Rivers State which have become vacant by reason of the defection of the 27 former State lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The PDP asserts that by defecting from the PDP, the political Party platform on which they were elected into the Rivers State House of Assembly, the seats of the respective 27 former lawmakers have become vacant by virtue of the provision of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
“For the avoidance of doubt, Section 109 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that “a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if … (g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political Party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected…
“By reason of the above Constitutional provision and its clear interpretation by the Supreme Court, the 27 defected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have vacated and lost their seats, rights, privileges, recognition and obligations accruable to members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
“The PDP therefore demands that the Speaker of the Rivers State House Assembly immediately comply with the provision of the Constitution by declaring the seats of the 27 former lawmakers vacant.
“In view of the vacancy now exiting in the 27 State Constituencies in Rivers State, the PDP demands that INEC should within the stipulated period under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) conduct fresh election to fill the vacancies.
“Our Party cautions that the former lawmakers should stop parading themselves as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly as such would amount to impersonation with serious criminal consequences.”
“The PDP commends the people of Rivers State for their steadfastness and loyalty to Democracy and Rule of Law especially at this time,” the statement added.
