The ongoing political upheaval in Rivers State continues to elicit responses, with legal practitioner Emmanuel Anele asserting that the leader of one faction in the state assembly, Edison Ehie, lacks the legal authority to declare the seats of 27 members in the opposing group vacant.
Appearing on a monitored program on Thursday, the lawyer argued that Ehie's declaration contradicts the provisions of the 1999 Constitution. Edison Ehie, heading a faction aligned with Governor Siminalayi Fubara, had on Wednesday declared the seats of 27 lawmakers, led by Martin Amaewhule and loyal to former governor Nyesom Wike, vacant after their defection from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All-Progressives Congress (APC).
Anele contended that this action does not comply with Section 109, Subsection 1 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. According to him, the members only automatically lose their seats if a court determines their defection is invalid.
“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 at this moment lose your seat," Anele explained. "It’s on that ground that the speaker will now say, ‘Given the judgement before me against the 27 lawmakers that defected, their seats have been declared vacant’.”
He emphasized that the section does not empower the speaker to declare any seat vacant automatically; rather, it requires a court determination on the validity of the defection.
“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 crisis within the 32-member Assembly stems from a rift between Governor Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike. A Rivers High Court in Port Harcourt has restrained the Amaewhule-led group from forcibly accessing the assembly complex until the suit is heard. The crisis intensified as the governor presented the N800 billion 2024 budget estimates to the Ehie-led group at the Government House, coinciding with the demolition of the Assembly Complex on Wednesday. Subsequently, the governor signed the 2024 Appropriation Bill after its passage by the Ehie-led group in the Assembly.
