New Twist For Pro-Wike Lawmakers As APC Gives Fresh Orders
Some members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and loyalists of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are now facing a new twist with many hurdles to cross on their paths.
This followed the recent court judgment validating the position of Emeka Beke as the authentic and recognized Chairman of the APC in Rivers State.
Accordingly, the reinstated APC Chairman, Beke has declared that the embattled 27 lawmakers are now fully recognized as members of the party.
Unlike the Tony Okacha-led Caretaker Committee of the APC which was sacked by the Court, that refused to publicly acknowledge the embattled lawmakers as members of the APC, Beke, who featured in Arise Television programme on Saturday, said in an unmistaken term that the 27 lawmakers are bona fide members of the party.
Beke said being members of the APC, they would be made to go through primary election to fill the vacancies existing in the House of Assembly as a result of their defection.
He therefore urged the 27 lawmakers to prepare for the primary election to select the party’s candidates to contest for the empty seats in the State House of Assembly.
The standing of the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly was vitiated by the courts upon interpretation of Section 68 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Following the legal lacuna arising from the defection, Governor Sim Fubara pointedly declared that the lawmakers have lost their Assembly’s seats in line with the provisions of the Constitution while the Okocha-led leadership of the APC gave the embattled lawmakers cover by refusing to openly identify with them.
In what looked like a new twist in the entire political drama, Beke said there is no need denying the 27 lawmakers whom the whole world watched when they defected to the APC.
In his words; “The 27 lawmakers should prepare for election to fill the vacancy in their seats arising from their defection. They are members of the party and I am going to invite them for the meeting on Thursday. They are members of our party.
“When it comes to the issue of election, they will go through the process of buying forms, the process of winning nomination and going for the election and that is another phase all together and it depends on who and who wants to run the election as members of our party.”
“Tickets is not going to be given freely. You must go through the process by going to your ward and do all the necessary things and when you win the primaries, you can contest the election,” Beke stressed.
