PDP accuses APC of forcing itself into government in Rivers

Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara (middle) taking a walk during the visit to the State House of Assembly Quarters in Port Harcourt on Thursday.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of forcing itself into government in Rivers state.

PDP made this allegation against APC on Saturday in a statement by spokesman, Debo Ologunagba.

APC on Friday said the quest of Rivers state governor, Sim Fubara to disobey Nigeria’s constitution and govern in denial of the existence of the state legislature is an impeachable offense.

APC also accused the PDP of tendering a hogwash argument that by Section 109 of the Constitution, the 27 House of Assembly members who defected from PDP to APC have forfeited their seats, and echoed the governor’s declaration that the Rivers State House of Assembly is non-existent.

In reaction, PDP “lampooned APC over its witless press statement wherein it laboured without success to subvert the Constitution on the vacation of seats by former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who lost their membership of that Legislative House upon defection from the PDP”.

“The statement further exposes the hallucinating and manipulative plots by the APC to force itself into goverment in Rivers State against the WILL of the people; a futile venture which will remain a mirage for the APC,” Ologunagba said.

“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.”

Ologunagba said 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.

He added that such member will vacate his seat 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.

Ologunagba said 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.

He said 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.

The PDP spokesman also said that the lawmakers who defected to the APC 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,” he said.

“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.”

Ologunagba said that will be the case 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.