After 27 Wike lawmakers defection to APC, PDP-led Rivers Assembly declares their seats vacant

*Existing courts’ judgments back Rivers Speaker’s action – Investigation

By BASHIR ADEFAKA and OUR REPORTER, Port Harcourt

“…it is a constitutional matter that a parliamentarian who defects in this manner “shall (mandatory and not a mere directive, not a matter of opinion) vacate his seat”.”

Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie, has declared vacant seats of 27 members, who were elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with PDP’s mandate.

The decision was made on Wednesday morning during a sitting presided over by Ehie himself, coinciding with the state government’s ongoing demolition of the Assembly complex.

The location of the assembly sitting can’t be confirmed at the time of this report.

This development follows Monday’s mass defection of the 27 members, led by Martin Amaewhule, a factional speaker loyal to former governor Nyesom Wike.

The 32-member assembly has been embroiled in a leadership dispute since October, with two rival factions vying for control.

Adding to the turmoil, a High Court in Port Harcourt recently confirmed Ehie as the legitimate speaker on Tuesday. The court also restrained Wike’s supporters from accessing the Assembly complex until renovation ordered by the state government is completed.

Antecedents

The DEFENDER recalls existence of a court judgment that already decidedthis type of fate that has come of the 27 members in Rivers Assembly, which legal practitioners say means requires no controversy.

It will be recalled in the case of Ifedayo Abegunde a.k.a. Abena, sacked in 2012 by Federal High Court sitting in Akure as member of the House of Representatives representing Akure North/Akure South Federal Constituency, for defecting from the Labour Party (LP) on which platform he was elected.

Abegunde was elected into the House of Representative on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) during the April 2011 general elections, but defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) after a few months.

He had approached the court for judicial protection against his recall by the Ondo State House of Assembly and the Labour Party. But the court refused to protect him from being recalled. The defendants also prayed that the electoral body should conduct by-election to fill the vacant seat.

In her judgment, presiding judge, Justice Gloria Okeke, noted that without a political party, no candidate can contest an election since there is no provision for independent candidacy in Nigerian elections.

Citing a Supreme Court decision in Amaechi vs INEC (2008) 5 NWLR Pt. 1080, the she added that “if it is only a party that canvasses for votes, it follows that it is a party that wins an election. A good or bad candidate may enhance or diminish the prospect of his party in winning, but at the end of the day it is the party that wins or loses an election.”

According to Justice Okeke, the issue raised by Abegunde was not a dispute that should warrant his defection to the ACN, adding that it is a constitutional matter that a parliamentarian who defects in this manner “shall (mandatory and not a mere directive, not a matter of opinion) vacate his seat”.