Edwin Clark, the convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should conduct a by-election to fill the seats of defected lawmakers in Rivers state.
In December 2023, 27 members of the Rivers house of assembly
left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the All Progressives Congress
(APC).
The defected lawmakers are loyal to Nyesom Wike, minister of
the federal capital territory (FCT) and former governor of Rivers.
The defection followed the feud between Wike and Siminalayi
Fubara, the governor of Rivers.
The defection of the lawmakers has been the subject of
multiple legal cases.
In an open letter addressed to Mahmood Yakubu, INEC
chairman, Clark said the defection of the lawmakers is a violation of section
109 (1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), noting that there is no
crisis in the PDP.
According to section 109(1)(g), “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
any other political party before the expiration of the period for which that
House was elected: 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 Ijaw leader noted that based on the provision of the
Constitution, the lawmakers have vacated their seats, adding that the electoral
body must see the Constitution as a ground norm.
Clark said the defected lawmakers are now moving from one
court to another to save their sealed fate.
“The seats of the 27 former members of the Rivers state
house of assembly have been vacant for a long time, more than one year after
the former holders vacated, thus depriving the people of the affected
constituencies of representation in the state house of assembly,” he wrote.
“INEC under your watch is yet to carry out its statutory
function of conducting a by-election to fill the seats.
“By their actions, going by Section 109 1(g), those 27
persons have automatically and immediately, without reversal, lost their seats.
“Martin Amawhule and his colleagues are still parading
themselves as members of RSHA, attempting to turn the issue on its head, that
they did not defect. They are shopping from one court to the other for court
judgments and rulings.
“I plead with the Chairman of INEC to, without delay,
conduct a by-election to fill the vacant seats and give adequate representation
to the people of the affected constituencies.”
The by-elections are to be conducted due to the death or
resignation of members of the national and state houses of assembly.
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