The ongoing political turmoil in Rivers State is still generating reactions, with legal practitioner Emmanuel Anele saying that the law does not empower the leader of one group of the state assembly, Edison Ehie, to declare the seats of 27 members in the opposing group vacant.
The lawyer, who made a live appearance on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, said the declaration by Ehie does not align with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
Leading five members loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Ehie, on Wednesday, declared the seats of 27 lawmakers led by Martin Amaewhule, loyal to former governor Nyesom Wike, vacant following their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
[READ ALSO:] Defection: Ehie Declares 27 Seats Of Rivers Lawmakers Vacant
The legal practitioner argued that this action does not adhere to the stipulations of Section 109, Subsection 1 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
“These members have not lost their seats unless the court now says that having defected from PDP to APC and the reasons you cited could not avail you of that defection, you hereby lose your seat.
“It’s on that ground that the speaker will now say, ‘In view of the judgement before me against the 27 lawmakers that defected, their seats have been declared vacant’,” Anele said.
“That section did not automatically empower the speaker to declare any seat vacant, unless the fact as to the issue of defection is determined by the court.”
“The provision of the section states that if there is a defection from party A to party B and that defection has not caused a division in the party that brought the member to power, then you can declare his seat vacant.”
The 32-member Assembly’s crisis originated from a rift between Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, with a Rivers High Court in Port Harcourt restraining the Amaewhule-led group from forcibly gaining access to the assembly complex until the suit is heard.
The crisis escalated as the governor presented the N800bn 2024 budget estimates to the Ehie-led group at the Government House, coinciding with the demolition of the Assembly Complex on Wednesday.
The governor on Thursday assented to the 2024 Appropriation Bill after it was passed by the Ehie-led group in the Assembly.