Rivers: PDP seeks fresh election into 27 lawmakers’ seats
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the seats of the 27 lawmakers who defected to the All Progressives Congress.
The former PDP lawmakers are loyalists of former governor and, now, minister Nyesom Wike.
The party said it was making the call based on the provision of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
It said: “Section 109 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that “a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if … (g) 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 the expiration of the period for which that House was elected…”
It added that the lawmakers “have vacated and lost their seats, rights, privileges, recognition and obligations accruable to members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.”
The party asked the factional speaker of the Rivers State House Assembly to immediately comply with the provision of the Constitution by declaring the seats of the 27 former lawmakers vacant.
“In view of the vacancy now exiting in the 27 State Constituencies in Rivers State, the PDP demands that INEC should within the stipulated period under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) conduct fresh election to fill the vacancies.”
