A lawyer in Port Harcourt, Mr Eric William, on Friday urged the National Assembly to urgently take over legislative functions of Rivers House of Assembly to enable the state function optimally.

Williams told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt that the state legislature was not functioning due to the nullification of the elections of 22 lawmakers.

NAN recalls that the State Elections Petitions Tribunal and Court of Appeal had on October 24, and November 16, 2015, respectively, nullified the elections of 22 out of the 32 members of the assembly.

William said that since the assembly could not form a quorum to function, there was urgent need for the National Assembly to step in and take over its functions.

He noted that the current membership of the assembly ‘’ means that there is no law, no Bill, no legislative function.

‘’But there are some constitutional remedies; for instance, where Rivers state House of Assembly is not functional, the law empowers the National Assembly in such a situation to step in and assume the legislative functions of the House of Assembly of the state.”

According to him, this would ‘’cure the lacuna created by the issue of quorum not being met as required by the law.

“Until the National Assembly steps in, I don’t think any law could be passed, no bill can be passed by the very few members as they have no competence whatsoever to do so,’’ he said.

According to William, the state was losing out due to the temporary ‘’shut down’’ of the legislature.

He said the lawmakers had a lot of inputs to make in governance, which it would not be possible now due to the shut down.

‘’We (state) are missing some things; that is why we need the National Assembly, that is why it is necessary as envisaged under Section 4 of the Constitution,’’ he said.

Another lawyer, Mr Joshua Solomon, said it was a set back to democracy when an arm of the government was not functioning.

He said that the three arms of government were expected to function optimally at all times for the benefit of democracy.