Your Seats Are Gone! Falana Tells Rivers Lawmakers

HUMAN rights activist and constitutional lawyer Mr Femi Falana, on Wednesday, said there is no division in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to warrant the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly to dump the party for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On Monday, 27 lawmakers said to be loyal to the immediate past governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, dumped the party for the APC. However, two of the lawmakers were said to have returned to the PDP.

A day after, the PDP asked Edison Ehie, Speaker of the faction of the Assembly loyal to the state governor, Sir Simi Fubara, to declare the lawmakers’ seats vacant immediately. An advice the faction heeded yesterday during plenary held at Government House, Port Harcourt. 

Meanwhile, reacting to the crisis rocking the Assembly, Mr Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said the affected lawmakers should approach the court to challenge the Speaker’s decision if they are aggrieved with it.

“The party must have broken down down the line before you can talk of a division that will warrant your remaining in the House of the Assembly or not. For once, there is no division in your party and you decide to quit,” he said yesterday.

“Every law student knows in Nigeria that automatically, you lose your seat. You will have to re-contest under your new party.”

The human rights lawyer also faulted the lawmakers’ decision, saying they were not exposed to sound legal advice.

According to Falana, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is required by law to conduct elections for the seats of the lawmakers.

“The legislators were not exposed to sound legal advice. Everybody should know that once the Supreme Court has made a pronouncement on a matter in any country, you’re bound to comply, and if you’re going to take any decision, you must study the judgment critically.

“Just yesterday (Tuesday) 27 legislators who defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress(APC), had their seats declared vacant by the court. That’s the law; unless the Supreme Court decides to change it, that is the law in Nigeria today.

“It’s also a good development; it’s a good law; it’s a good interpretation that there should be no political prostitution in the country because it’s tantamount to political immorality if you vote on the platform of a political party and you abandon the party; you’re advised to go and try your luck by contesting again under the new political party,” he said.

Eighteen-Eleven Media