Caretaker Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has expressed delight as 27 of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers moved to the APC, describing the defectors as real democrats.
The lawmakers who are said to be loyal to Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), held a plenary session at about 8 am on Monday where the decision was taken amid tight security.
According to the legislators, division within the PDP was their reason for jumping ship.
Speaking on the issue at a Monday press conference in Port Harcourt, he said: “Today, we received 27 former members of the PDP into the APC, Rivers State. We commend the defectors. If the governor of the state has decided to give vent to four persons over 27, how does that go? We have gone pass the era of 16 being above 19.”
Okocha, who is also the Rivers State representative on the board of Niger Delta Development Commission, added that: “There is no government in Rivers State. This governement was built on the plank of continuity. Nothing is happening in the state. People are hungry. They are angry. There has to be checks and balances. There will be a check to the government now. We commend the defectors for this decision they have taken. They are real democrats.”
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The Labour Party (LP) on the other hand, clamoured for fresh elections to be conducted in Rivers State to fill vacancies allegedly created by the defection of the 27 legislators citing provisions of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution.
In a statement, Rivers State’s LP Chairman, Hilda Dokubo, said “the above provision of the constitution is very clear about the fate that must befall those legislators who betrayed the party that sponsored them.”
Recalling that in 2022, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sacked 16 Ebonyi House of Assembly members for defection based on Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution; 18 members of Cross River House of Assembly and two House of Representatives members; and the LP suffered the same fate in Ondo, she urged the Rivers State Speaker to declare the seats of the 27 lawmakers vacant, and the INEC, to organise fresh polls.
“The Labour Party can also vividly recall that in 2012, our member representing Akure North/Akure South Federal Constituency defected to another party. This case lingered until the Supreme Court in 2022 ordered him to immediately vacate his seat following his defection from the Labour Party. The Court’s unanimous judgement held that the lawmaker who decamped from the Labour Party to another party was constitutionally unfit to retain his seat as a federal lawmaker in the House of Representatives,” she added.
