The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared vacant the seats of some members of the Imo State House of Assembly that defected from the party to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
PDP also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct fresh polls in those constituencies where the assembly members defected.
The party’s position was conveyed in a Wednesday statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
The Herald gathered that the Speaker, Hon. Chiji Collins and seven others joined the ruling APC. Among those who decamped is the lawmaker representing sacked governor Emeka Ihedioha’s Aboh Mbaise State constituency, Hon. Eddy Obinna.
In the statement, the party said the 1999 constitution was clear on the penalty for defection by any lawmaker.
The PDP described the action as “unpatriotic and an unpardonable betrayal of the people of their respective constituencies who chose and identified with the ideal and visions of the PDP as the platform for their representation at the state assembly.
“The defectors have indeed shown absolute lack of character, failure of leadership capacity in moments of challenges and absence of faith to stand with the people in their most trying moment, but are easily bought by personal pecuniary and political interests.
“The PDP holds that these defectors are fully aware of the grave implication of their actions to the effect that by their defection to the APC, they have automatically lost their seats and membership of the Imo state House of Assembly as they can only hold such position on the mandate of the party on which they were elected; the PDP.”
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The statement further read, “It is settled under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), that a legislator who decamps from a party upon which he was elected a member of a legislative house automatically loses 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 the 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 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, they no longer have a place in the state assembly, as there is no division or merger of any kind in the PDP at any level whatsoever.
“The PDP is therefore left with no other option than to request the INEC to immediately commence the processes 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.”