The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reaffirmed yesterday that the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected from the opposition party to the All Progressives Congress (APC) have forfeited their seats according to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP accused the APC of orchestrating a bid to impose itself in government in Rivers State against the popular mandate.
The opposition party urged the APC to acknowledge that, following the departure of the majority of members from the Rivers Assembly, the remaining members constitute the quorum of the legislative house.
The statement reads In part: “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 proviso of Section 109(1)(G) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in voiding their seats upon their defection.
“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.”
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