Lawmakers In Rivers That Defected To APC Must Lose Their Seats, PDP Insists
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has insisted that there is no remedy for the Rivers State lawmakers whose seats were declared vacant following their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) except through a fresh election.
The party stated this in a statement posted on its X handle (formerly Twitter) and signed by the Acting National Chairperson, Umar Damagum.
The Rivers assembly has been engulfed in crisis since late October after some lawmakers initiated impeachment proceedings against the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, a development that led to the bombing of a section of the assembly complex.
The crisis, triggered by the power tussle between Mr Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who is now the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, has split the 31-member assembly into two factions.
Martin Amaewhule is the speaker of the faction backed by Mr Wike while the second faction with Edison Ehie as the speaker is loyal to Governor Fubara.
The crisis got messier on 11 December when members of Mr Wike-backed faction rose from plenary and announced their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), abandoning the party on whose platform they were elected, PDP.
Two days later, Mr Ehie’s faction, buoyed by a court order to carry out legislative business without interference by the rival faction, declared the seats of the 25 defected colleagues vacant before receiving Governor Fubara who presented the state’s 2024 budget.
PDP insists on fresh election
The defected lawmakers had cited division in the PDP as the basis for their defection, a claim the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has dismissed at its emergency meeting on Tuesday.
“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no division in the PDP at the national or any other level for that matter to justify the defection of the 25 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from the Party.
“They therefore vacated their seats for reasons best known to them and cannot return to the House of Assembly without passing through a fresh electoral process in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2022.”
The PDP mentioned Section 84 (15) of the Act which barred courts from preventing Nigeria’s electoral commission from conducting election to fill such vacant positions where it exist.
“The PDP demands that INEC should, in line with Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 84 (15) of the Electoral Act, 2022, fix a date for the conduct of fresh election into the 25 State Constituencies in Rivers State where vacancies have occurred by reason of the defection of the now former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, pending the determination of any suit in any court.”
The party dismissed as “impracticable” assurances from Abuja that the “former lawmakers” can return to the assembly without a fresh election.
Related: Tinubu Meets Fubara, Peter Odili At Aso Rock Over Rivers Political Crisis
The party’s position came a day after President Tinubu held a peace meeting in Abuja, the second in less than two months, between Messrs Fubara and Wike accompanied by former Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State and other elders from the state.
Part of the peace deal signed at the meeting is that the defected lawmakers whose seats were declared vacant should be allowed to return to the assembly and conduct legislative business at a venue of their choice without interference by Governor Fubara, an agreement the PDP dismissed as “impracticable.”
The peace deal also makes provision for the restoration of Mr Amaewhule as the speaker of the House, and for Mr Fubara to present again to the House the 2024 budget which he had signed into law and to reappoint the commissioners who resigned from his cabinet because of their loyalty to Mr Wike.