The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday insisted that the 26 Rivers House of Assembly lawmakers who dumped the party for the All Progressives Congress (APC) are no longer members of the state legislature.
PDP National Legal Adviser, Adeyemi Ajibade, SAN, said this after Justice Donatus Okorowo of Federal High Court, Abuja, adjourned the embattled lawmakers’ suit to 24 January 2024.
Mr Ajibade said though President Bola Tinubu might have intervened in the dispute between Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, who is the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, the party stood on what the constitution says on defection.
“PDP as a party, we are standing on the side of the constitution of the country. It is not about issues of an agreement, it is about the constitution we all swore to uphold.
“The governor himself swore to uphold the constitution likewise the president.
“I am not against the president calling for the resolution of the matter. He is the chief security officer of this country and he has every right to intervene in the issue.
“But besides that, we, as a political party, the PDP, own those seats and certainly we are interested in those seats.
“Whatever the governor is doing in this matter that concerns whether resolution on the issue, no resolution has been brought to Wadata Plaza on this matter.
“But as a political party, we cannot leave the seats and the votes willingly given to the party by the people of Rivers State,” he said.
According to the senior lawyer, aside from that, the constitution of the country is very clear; Section 109 (1g) is clear as to issues of detection.
He said the affected lawmakers have not denied that they had not defected.
“Even if you pick the writ of summon that was filed before this court, they said they actually defected.
“So they are only stating while they defected, that they have the right to defect based on the reasons given by them.
“So it is not an issue as to whether there was a defection or not and we cannot fold our hands. So we have to go to recover our seats,” he said.
Mr Ajibade, who said they are challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the suit, said if the court ruled that it had jurisdiction, the PDP would appeal it.
“We have a higher court,” he said.
On what transpired in court, he said though the case was adjourned for a hearing of interlocutory injunction, the PDP filed an objection that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
He said though he opposed the plaintiff’s application for the extension of the ex-parte order earlier granted by the court on 15 December, he said it was unfortunate that other defendants who were supposed to take side with them did not oppose it, and the court granted the request.
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