PDP: Tinubu’s intervention in Rivers can’t stop election to fill vacant assembly seats

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says there is no remedy for the 27 members of the Rivers state house of assembly who dumped the party to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The PDP was reacting to President Bola Tinubu’s intervention in the political crisis in the Niger Delta state.

On Monday, Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers state, and Nyesom Wike, his predecessor and minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), agreed to end the political turmoil between them after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu.

Among the resolutions reached at the meeting, all parties to the crisis in Rivers agreed that all matters instituted in courts should be “immediately” withdrawn, while the 27 lawmakers who defected to the APC should be taken back as members of the assembly.

Speaking after an emergency meeting of the PDP national working committee (NWC), Umar Damagum, acting national chairman of the party, said the defected lawmakers can only return to the Rivers house of assembly through an election.

Citing section 109 (1g) of the constitution, Damagum said there is “no remedy” for the lawmakers who “vacated and lost their seats because of defection from the PDP, the party platform upon which they were elected into the house of assembly”.

“Our Party insists that having now vacated and lost their seats, the only option available for the former lawmakers, if they wish to return to the house of assembly, is to seek fresh nomination and reelection on the platform of any political party of their choice in line with the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2022,” he said.

The PDP chairman said the lawmakers “freely and without any cause” vacated their seats, being fully aware of the consequences of defection from the party upon which they were elected. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no division in the PDP at the national or any other level for that matter to justify the defection of the 25 former members of the Rivers state house of assembly from the party,” Damagum said. 

“They, therefore, vacated their seats for reasons best known to them and cannot return to the house of assembly without passing through a fresh electoral process.

“Moreover, the speaker of the Rivers state house of assembly Rt. on (Barr) Ehie O. Edison DSSRS officially declared the seat of the defected now former members vacant.

“The Rivers state house of assembly, having become Functus Officio on the matter, cannot re-admit the former lawmakers unless through the channel of a fresh election.”

The PDP asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct by-elections in the 27 constituencies to fill the” vacant seats” in the Rivers house of assembly.

In recent weeks, there has been a power tussle between Fubara and Wike, leading to divisions in the state’s political landscape.

The conflict extended to the Rivers house of assembly, polarising the legislature.

Amid the political crisis, some commissioners resigned from Fubara’s cabinet.