Rivers Crisis: Legislators who defected to APC, have lost their seats – PDP

The  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that its former members elected to the Rivers State House of Assembly but defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) have lost their seats and only have themselves to blame for their fate.

This is as the party also accused the ruling party of labouring to subvert the constitution through “witless” pronouncements “on the vacation of seats by former members.”

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, made the assertion in a statement on Saturday, saying that the position of the law is that the former members who defected to the APC have lost their seats in the legislature. 

The statement accused the APC of a “hallucinating and manipulative plot” to force itself into goverment in Rivers State against the will of the people, noting that it is “a futile venture which will remain a mirage for the APC.”

The PDP added: “It is indeed pathetic for the APC to think that the facts and true import of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to the effect that the former lawmakers have since lost their seats can be muddled and lost in litigations and lengthy press statements.

“Interestingly, in the failed bid to subvert the Constitution to give the former members of the Rivers State
House of Assembly a lifeline, the APC ended up admitting the clarity of the provison of Section 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in voiding their seats upon their defection.

The former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, for reasons best known to them, wittingly vacated and summarily lost their seats as nothing in the provison protects or allows them to retain their membership of the Rivers State House of Assembly after decamping from the political party upon which they were elected.

“These former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have only themselves to blame for Constitutionally vacating their seats; a course which cannot be reversed or remedied. They should admit their miscalculation and bear the inescapable consequences. 

“This is especially so as the Supreme Court, in the case of Abegunde vs Ondo State House of Assembly and Others, has since clarified and affirmed the import of the proviso in Section 109(1)(g) in validating the automatic vacation of a seat by a member of a Legislative House who defected from the Party upon which he was elected into that House.

The PDP warned the APC to desist from its attempt to forcefully take over Rivers State. 

It said: “For the umpteenth time the PDP cautions the APC to steer clear of Rivers State; it should perish the thoughts of forcefully taking over the State and stop exasperating the public space by seeking to reverse the irreversible.

The APC should come to terms that with the vacation of seats by the former lawmakers, the quorum of the Rivers State House of Assembly will be determined by the number of the remaining lawmakers as provided by law; until a bye-election is conducted to fill the vacancies now existing in the Rivers State House of Assembly as a result of the defection by the former members.”

Also speaking on the Rivers State Crisis, former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Olabode George at the weekend warned President Bola Tinubu not to treat with levity the threat by some lawmakers in the state House of Assembly to impeach Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Insisting that the oil-bearing state belongs to PDP, he advised that nobody should sit on the fence and pretend as if everything is okay.

While quoting Section  109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution which states  that: a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House ir 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”, George maintained that all the PDP  lawmakers who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) have automatically lost their seats “and they are in no position to threaten Governor Fubara. So, their plot to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor is already in vain.

“Rivers people belong to PDP. Those threatening to impeach the governor are being remote-controlled by some forces. This must stop because if Rivers is set on fire today, that may end this democracy. 
We should remember ‘Operation Wetie’ which started in the defunct Western Region and eventually consumed the nation and ended the First Republic in 1966.

“All the actors in this crisis in Rivers should avoid actions likely to cause breach of peace and breakdown of law and order in our country, George said.