Imo Assembly Defectors: Constitutional Provisions Unambiguous – PDP

Share

BY GRACE ANYANWU, ABUJA – The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has described the defection of some of its members in the Imo State House of Assembly to the All Progressives Congress (APC), as unpatriotic and unpardonable betrayal of the people of their respective constituencies that chose and identified with the ideals and vision of the party.

The PDP which stated this at a press conference by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said that the defectors have indeed shown absolute lack of character, failure of leadership capacity in moments of challenges and absence of faith to stand with the people in their most trying moment, but are easily bought by personal pecuniary and political interests. 

The Party stressed that it is therefore left with no other option than to request the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to immediately commence the processes for the conduct of fresh elections into the respective state constituencies where the legislators have vacated their seats, in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.

 Ologbondiyan said that the PDP holds that the defectors are fully aware of the grave implication of their actions to the effect that by their defection to the APC, they have automatically lost their seats and membership of the Imo state House of Assembly as they can only hold such position on the mandate of the party on which they were elected; the PDP.

According to the PDP; “It is settled under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), that a legislator who decamps from a party upon which he was elected a member of a legislative house automatically losses his or her membership of that house as the seat belongs to the political party upon which platform the election was won and not the individual.

“The vacation of seat, as a direct consequence of decamping to another political party other than the party upon which one was elected to occupy a seat in the legislature, is clear and unambiguous under section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“For the avoidance of doubt, section 109 (1)(g) provides that “a member of the House of Assembly SHALL VACATE his seat in the House if …(g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected:

“The Constitution went further to state “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 PDP said that consequent upon the above constitutional provisions, the defectors have vacated their seats as they no longer have a place in the state assembly, since there is no division or merger of any kind in the PDP at any level whatsoever.

The Party called on its teeming members and supporters in Imo state to remain calm and focused at this trying time as the national leadership proceeds with arrangements ahead of fresh elections in the affected constituencies.

The PDP national leadership assured the people of Imo state that processes are already on towards achieving a judicial review and reversal of the defective judgment of the Supreme Court, on the Imo state governorship election.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply