Rivers: Until 27 lawmakers justify defection, their seats remain vacant – Adegoke SAN

Kunle Adegoke, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) has said that the 27 members of Rivers State House of Assembly who have defected from the Peoples democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) are no longer members of the House, and that their seats are vacated until they’re able to justify their action.

Adegoke while speaking on Arise TV on Tuesday said, “The situation in Rivers State at the moment is one that has presented itself before.

“We have a situation where members of the House of Assembly in drones have defected to an opposition party.

“In fact, we cannot even say that they’ve defected to an opposition again in the sense that they are in the majority and are probably the ones that are power.

“Maybe the PDP can set out to be the opposition party as far as the majority of the House of Assembly is concerned. To this extent it is the position of the law that one of the circumstances in which a member of the House of Assembly shall be regarded as having vacated his seat in the House of Assembly is if he decamps from the political party on which platform he was elected to another political party, and in such a situation by section 109 (1) (g) of the constitution, such a member of House of Assembly is deemed to have vacated his seat.

“In this circumstance you can say that 27 lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected on Monday to APC are no more members of the House of Assembly that is as far as the constitution has stipulated.

He added, “The requirement of the constitution to the effect that where those members are not going to vacate their seats, they must be able to show that there is a division in the political party of which party they were elected. If there is a crisis leading to a division in their political party on which basis, they are leaving that political party. If they’re not able to show that there is a division in that political party, they cannot be said to have justified the basis of their decamping from the party on which platform they were originally elected.

“The situation will also be so if there is a merger between their political party and another party in which case there is a transformation from the party on which they became members in the House of Assembly and another political party in which that political party is now merged.

“A situation where they’ve just cross carpeted to another political party, the law is that they shall be regarded as having vacated their seats.

“Now they’re in majority, they’ll probably elect a new speaker to continue exercising their right as members of the House of Assembly.

“I believe that the current Speaker of the House of Assembly is required under the constitution to declare that members who decamped from PDP to APC are required to show the justification for decamping,” he added.
Culled from: Daily Independent