The Peoples Democratic Party, on Monday, said it would write the Independent National Election today (Tuesday) to demand fresh elections to replace its 27 members in the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected to the All Progressives Congress.
A total of 27 members of the House elected on the PDP platform on Monday, defected to the APC and threatened to reject the requests of the state Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for approval.
The reason adduced for their defection, according to the letters written to the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, and read on the floor of the House, was predicated on the division in the party as regards the tussle for the position of the National Secretary of the PDP, which had made communications channels difficult.
Prior to the 2023 governorship election in the state, Nyesom Wike, then governor of the state had reportedly bought forms for dozens of PDP stalwarts including Fubara as governorship aspirants.
But Wike was reported to have picked Fubara, who was then Accountant General of the state, a situation which created ripples among party leaders who said Fubara was not a politician and was not part of the struggle.
But Fubara and his predecessor fell apart a few months ago when lawmakers loyal to Wike moved to impeach the incumbent governor. Amidst the crisis, a section of the state House of Assembly was gutted by fire.
The moves to impeach the governor led to a division in the House, with Speaker, Amaewhule leading the majority while House Leader, Edison Ehie, led another faction.
Reacting to the defection of the lawmakers, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in an interview on Monday, revealed that the party would explore all options to reclaim its seats in the state House of Assembly.
Ologunagba, who described the PDP as a law-abiding party, said, “We will write to INEC tomorrow (Tuesday) to make our position known.”
When asked what the party would do if INEC failed to grant its request, the PDP publicity secretary replied, “You cannot pre-empt our steps and our party. We know the law and we understand it. We will take a state at a time. What I can assure you is that the PDP will explore all options.”
Earlier in a statement, Ologunagba declared that by defecting from the PDP, the seats of the respective 27 lawmakers had become vacant by virtue of the provision of Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution 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, the party added.’’
Ologunagba added that in the interpretation by the Supreme Court, the 27 defected members had vacated and lost their seats, rights, privileges, recognition, and obligations accruable to members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
But the governor kept mum as the lawmakers defected to the APC.
The governor who presided over a state executive council meeting on Monday, where the N800bn budget estimate for 2024 was approved, did not say anything about the defection of the lawmakers from his party.
It was observed that during Monday’s plenary when the state legislators took the decision to defect, the session was held under heavy security provided by the police at about 8am.