Rivers lawmakers that defected have lost their seats - Lawyer

A foremost lawyer, Kalu Kalu said the 27 lawmakers from Rivers State who defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC have lost their seats in parliament.

Kalu stated this in an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday.

He said, “The 27 affected constituencies, their seats are already vacant, going by the provision of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as uttered.

“Once you defect from the political party from which you won election, to another political party before the expiration of the house upon which you were elected, that you automatically lose that seat. So, there is no need for any institution to declare that seat vacant.”

The lawyer noted that the law states that an elected official can only defect from his party to another during the course of his term if there is a leadership struggle within the party.

Kalu said, “The proviso in section 109-1g is clear that if there is a division in the party upon which the member came to the house in question, that the person has the right to move to another political party.

“The question here now is, is there a division or a split in PDP? And the answer is clear that there is no division in PDP.

“Yesterday, PDP came out with a position that they are against what happened in Rivers State, and today, there is no conflicting or dissenting opinion from another quarter or from another group in PDP saying that what honourable Debo said is not the position of PDP.

“Even in Rivers State as we talk, there is only one PDP in Rivers State, and there is no other faction of PDP in Rivers State. At the national level, there is only one PDP at the national level.”

Kalu referred to the video where the ‘purported’ speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly said that there is no substantive national secretary in the PDP and there are several cases bordering on the identity of the national secretary of PDP.

He said, “That thing is laughable, it is a very lame excuse, and that is not the law says in terms of division or split in the party.

“I can tell you for certain that there is no court process filed by Senator Samuel Anyanwu in all the cases the former speaker or the purported member of Rivers State House of Assembly listed, there is none.”

Kalu further said, “It is only when there is a leadership crisis, when there is a split in the leadership of the party at the national level that you can now say that there is a split.

“But as we speak today, PDP is conducting its affairs without any faction in anywhere in the country, precisely at the national level and at the Rivers State level. So, there’s no split, there’s no division in the PDP, and I stand to be quoted wrong.”

He said that all INEC needs to do is to begin the process of conducting bye-elections into the empty seats.