The Kabiru Turaki-led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has escalated its push to reclaim the seats of some Rivers State lawmakers who announced their defection from the party for a second time, saying it will now trigger constitutional measures to retrieve the mandates the legislators abandoned.
The party describes the repeated defections as deliberate affront to the legislature and a violation of the 1999 Constitution.
In a statement signed by the Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, the PDP recalled that the lawmakers had first defected, later reversed themselves and have now re-announced their departure, a pattern the party described as politically choreographed. It says the Rivers State House of Assembly members have by their actions since they assumed office, shown they are political puppets and a clog in the wheels of democratic progress.
The Party added that these individuals will go down in history as enemies of democracy and those who made mockery of the legislature.
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The PDP stresses that the Legislators’ latest move was effectively a defection from the APC to the APC and not a genuine break from the PDP, noting that the members had long distanced themselves from the party’s values even while holding its ticket.
Ememobong stresses that the PDP would now explore legal options to enforce constitutional sanctions that apply when lawmakers abandon the party that brought them into office by activating the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) to recover the mandate gained under the banner of the PDP.
While the PDP says the unfolding drama in Rivers State would not obstruct its broader internal reforms ahead of future elections, it calls for calm among its supporters, urging members to stay committed in spite of the political tremors shaking the state as efforts are underway to rebuild the party along the path of inclusiveness, fairness and equity.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
