As the political crisis bedeviling Rivers state following a clash of supremacy between the incumbent Governor and his predecessor continues evolving, the peoples’ Democratic party PDP says Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) are now in full control of Rivers State.
In a statement by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba in Abuja during the weekend, the PDP declared that all the Rivers legislators who defected to All Progressives Congress (APC) have completely lost all claims to their seats while all legal considerations now favour the PDP.
Ologunagba argues that the APC, in its recent statements about 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, is only pursuing a mirage and making stupid claims while attempting to subvert Nigeria’s constitution.
According to him,”It is truly pitiful of the APC to believe that long press releases and legal battles can obscure the facts and true significance of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which states that the former lawmakers have since lost their seats”.
It is interesting to note that the APC ultimately acknowledged the clarity of the proviso of Section 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which voids their seats upon their defection, in their futile attempt to undermine the Constitution to grant the former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly a lifeline, Ologunagba claims.
He furher pointed out that the constitution notes 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.
