PDP Knocks APC Over A Situation That’s Obviously Wearing The Look Of An Unfolding  Constitutional Crisis in Rivers

● Says the APC cannot reverse the irreversible;
● Urges the APC to perish the thought of taking Rivers State by force

By PHC Telegraph

The battleground in the ongoing conflict between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Nyesom Wike and the State Governor, Amaopu Siminalayi Fubara appears to have momentarily shifted from Rivers State to the nation’s capital, Abuja, where the National Secretariat of the PDP and that of the APC are currently engaged in a dogfight it.

Apparently descending into an overheated arena, where emotions are overflowing and men are fighting in the trenches, the APC on Friday launched blistering attacks at both the PDP and the Rivers Governor.

It said in summary that while the proviso in Section 109(1)(g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria cited by the PDP is not homeostatic, Fubara had allegedly by his utterances disrespected the place of the legislative institution.

According to Section (1)(g) of the Nigerian Constitution, “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 another political party before 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.”

Relying on the principle of power separation, the APC described the legislature as a co-equal of both the executive and the judiciary under the nation’s democratic arrangement.

But the PDP which had earlier warned the APC to perish thoughts of taking Rivers State by force hit back on Saturday.

Hon. Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary said the APC laboured in vain in a “witless press statement” put out for public consumption by Felix Morka, APC National Publicity Secretary, to embark on a ploy to  subvert the dictates of the Constitution “on the vacation of seats by former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who lost their membership of that Legislative House upon defection from the PDP.”

The PDP emphasized  that the statement “further exposes the hallucinating” as well as the “manipulative plots by the APC to force itself into goverment in Rivers State against the WILL of the people.”

Referring to the efforts of the APC as “a futile venture which will remain a mirage”,  the PDP said, “It is indeed pathetic for the APC to think that the facts and true import of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended)” would be swept under the carpet.

The party said that the rescue mission to save the former lawmakers who “have since lost their seats” cannot be “muddled and lost in litigations and lengthy press statements.”

“Interestingly, in the failed bid to subvert the Constitution to give the former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly a lifeline”, the PDP observed that the APC “ended up admitting the clarity of the proviso of Section 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in voiding their seats upon their defection.”

Citing the relevant section which has already been reproduced in this report, the PDP noted, “The former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, for reasons best known to them, wittingly vacated and summarily lost their seats as nothing in the proviso protects or allows them to retain their membership of the Rivers State House of Assembly after decamping from the political party upon which they were elected.

“These former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have only themselves to blame for Constitutionally vacating their seats; a course which cannot be reversed or remedied. They should admit their miscalculation and bear the inescapable consequences.

“This is especially so as the Supreme Court, in the case of Abegunde vs Ondo State House of Assembly and Others, has since clarified and affirmed the import of the proviso in Section 109(1)(g) in validating the automatic vacation of a seat by a member of a Legislative House who defected from the Party upon which he was elected into that House.”

The PDP asked the APC to steer clear of Rivers State and urged the party to “perish the thoughts of forcefully taking over the State and stop exasperating the public space by seeking to reverse the irreversible.”

The PDP said the issue of what should constitute the forum of the Rivers State House of Assembly has been altered by the ill-advised decision of the 27 lawmakers.

“The APC”, the PDP stressed “should come to terms that with the vacation of seats by the former lawmakers, the quorum of the Rivers State House of Assembly will be determined by the number of the remaining lawmakers as provided by law.”

It noted that “until a bye-election is conducted to fill the vacancies now existing in the Rivers State House of Assembly as a result of the defection by the former members”, matters of legislative interest would be determined by the remaining lawmakers.

In the meantime, the fight between the APC and the PDP for the soul of the Rivers State continues even as stakeholders battle to uphold the mandate of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the steps that he has taken so far to avoid any contact with persons whose position as lawmakers have been seemingly ousted by provisions of the constitution.