Legislators from Rivers who joined the APC lost their seats, according to Falana

Members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who switched from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress, according to human rights attorney Femi Falana, have lost their seats in the legislature.

Amidst the political impasse between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and former Rivers State governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, twenty-five lawmakers loyal to him have defected to the APC.

Falana declared on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics that the MPs will lose their seats as a result of switching to the APC.

Citing the constitution, he said, “Unless you can show and demonstrate that there is division in a political party that sponsored your election, you cannot remain in any legislative arm if you decamp to another party.

“The whole idea is that the constitution set out to ban political prostitution on the part of legislators.”

The human rights attorney pointed out that the speaker is not allowed to identify himself as the speaker of the house, and there is a court order that prevents the 25 members from advertising themselves as legislators in the state.

“It may be very difficult to persuade the court to allow them to remain in the legislative house unless they are prepared to go back to the people and have their mandate renewed by the people.

“The Supreme Court made this clear in the case of Adetunde and the Labour Party, that you cannot decamp and then remain a member of a legislative house in Nigeria unless you can show that there is a division in your party. It doesn’t mean a division in a local government or a state. It has to be on the national level. That is the position of the court,” he said.

Fubara and his godfather, Wike, fell out last year over moves to impeach the governor by the Assembly, which was largely made up of Wike’s supporters.

Following this, 27 lawmakers who shared Wike’s platform switched to the APC from the state’s ruling PDP.

The legislators, led by Martin Amaewhule, said that the PDP’s internal strife was the main reason behind their switch to the APC.