The Peoples Democratic Party has issued a stern warning to the All Progressives Congress, urging them to stay clear of Rivers State and abandon any plans of forcefully taking over the state.
The warning came in response to recent statements by the APC regarding the ongoing political crisis in Rivers State. According to the PDP, the APC’s statements have revealed their hallucinatory and manipulative plots to seize control of the state against the will of the people.
In a statement by Debo Ologunagba, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, the party accused the APC of attempting to subvert the Constitution in their bid to retain the seats of former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected from the party.
Ologunagba emphasized that the former lawmakers had lost their membership of the legislative house upon defection, in accordance with Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
He stated, “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.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, Section 109 (1)(g) of the Constitution is clear in providing that ‘a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if – 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 expiration of the period for which that House was elected.
“Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
“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 proviso 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.”
“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.”
