By Akinwale Kasali
The crisis rocking the Rivers State House of Assembly worsened on Wednesday when Court-recognized Speaker, Edison Ehie, declared the seats of the 27 Lawmakers loyal to Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike vacant. They defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, vacant on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
Ehie declared the seats vacant at the Government House venue of the Plenary.
The five remaining members of the 32-member Assembly, moved their sitting to Government House just as the Government began a demolition of the State Assembly Complex.
The demolition is a consequence of the razing, by political thugs, of some parts of the Complex in the wake of the failed attempt to impeach the State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
Speaker Ehie, who was elected in the wake of the crisis, and given a legal backing by a Rivers State High Court on Tuesday, said the decision became necessary following the defection of the 27 members from the PDP to the APC.
Ehie stressed that the Assembly will officially communicate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the vacant seats of the State Constituencies and the need to conduct fresh elections to fill the vacant seats.
It would be recalled that the National Leadership of the PDP had called on the electoral umpire to declare their seats vacant.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Debo Ologunagba, the PDP said that by leaving the PDP, on which platform they were elected, their seats had become vacant.
He said this was by virtue of the provision of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
The statement issued in Abuja by the Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba reads : “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…”
“By reason of the above Constitutional provision and its clear interpretation by the Supreme Court, the 27 defected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have vacated.
“They have lost their seats, rights, privileges, recognition and obligations accruable to members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
“The PDP therefore demands that the Speaker of the Rivers State House Assembly immediately comply with the provision of the Constitution by declaring the seats of the 27 former lawmakers vacant.”
“In view of the vacancy now exiting in the 27 State Constituencies in Rivers State, the PDP demands that INEC should within the stipulated period under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) conduct fresh election to fill the vacancies.”
