The 25 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the All Progressives Congress, APC, have lost their seats, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has said
Falana stated this while speaking in an interview on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics.
He said the lawmakers would be ousted from their seats for transitioning to the APC.
“Unless you can show and demonstrate that there is division in a political party that sponsored your election, you cannot remain in any legislative arm if you decamp to another party.
The senior lawyer noted that there is a court order restraining the 25 lawmakers from representing themselves as legislators in the state, as well as prohibiting the speaker from identifying himself as the speaker of the house.
Falana said, “It may be very difficult to persuade the court to allow them to remain in the legislative house unless they are prepared to go back to the people and have their mandate renewed by the people.
“The Supreme Court made this clear in the case of Adetunde and the Labour Party, that you cannot decamp and then remain a member of a legislative house in Nigeria unless you can show that there is a division in your party.
“It doesn’t mean a division in a local government or a state. It has to be on the national level. That is the position of the court,” he added.
It would be recalled that the lawmakers loyal to the former governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, had defected to the APC amid the political feud between the minister and Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
The crisis between the duo started last year when the Assembly, predominantly composed of Wike’s loyalists, made attempts to impeach the governor.
25 lawmakers aligned with Wike and defected from the ruling PDP in the state to the APC.
The lawmakers, led by Martin Amaewhule, cited internal division within the PDP as the principal motive for their transition to the APC.
metronetworknews with vanguard report
