PDP asks INEC to declare defecting Imo lawmakers’ seats vacant
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the seats of legislators that recently defected from the parties on which platform they were elected into the Imo state House of Assembly vacant.
The call was consequent upon the defection of some legislators, majorly PDP members into the All Progressives Congress (APC) after the swearing -in of Governor Hope Uzodinma of the APC.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, disclosed the position of the party at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
He held that the defectors are aware of the grave implication of their action to the effect that by their defection to the APC, they have automatically lost their seats and membership of the Imo assembly as they can only hold such position on the mandate of the party on which they were elected.
The party said that “under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), a legislator who decamps from a party upon which he was elected a member of a legislative house automatically losses his or her membership of that house as the seat belongs to the political party upon which platform the election was won and not the individual.
“The vacation of seat, as a direct consequence of decamping to another political party other than the party upon which one was elected to occupy a seat in the legislature is clear and unambiguous under Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“For the avoidance of doubt, Section 109 (1) (g) provides that a member of the state House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if …(g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected:
“The constitution went further to state 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.
“Consequent upon the above constitutional provisions, these defectors have vacated their seats as they no longer have a place in the state assembly as there isn’t any division or merger of in the PDP at any level whatsoever.”
The PDP therefore, requested the INEC to immediately commence the process for the conduct of fresh elections into the respective state constituencies where the legislators have vacated their seats, in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
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Failure of the electoral body to take the necessary step, the party declared that it may take the legal option to address the seeming injustice.
“Moreover, the national leadership assures the people of Imo state that processes are already on towards achieving a judicial review and reversal of the defective judgment of the Supreme Court on the Imo state governorship election,” he stated.
According to the party, the defectors have abdicated the mandate they hold on the pedestal of the party by defecting to the APC, ostensibly for selfish gains.
