The embattled 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have explained the reasons behind their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The lawmakers recently defected from the PDP to the APC.
Their seats were declared vacant by the Speaker of the House.
However, the embattled lawmakers, on Sunday, said their defection from PDP to APC was tied to President Bola Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope Agenda”.
The factional Speaker, Martins Amaewhule, who led the mass defection, disclosed the reason at a “Thanksgiving and stakeholders’ meeting” of APC in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Sunday, December 17, 2023.
Amaewhule said their defection was in line with section 109 of the 1999 Constitution “to make sure that we followed due process”.
He said: “We made sure we did not do anything outside the 1999 Constitution.
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“The Constitution has given room for people to defect, that’s why section 109 (1g) allows serving legislators, who want to defect to do so with a provisiom that there is a division in the party.
“There is clearly a division in the PDP, so in line with this section we defected to APC.”
Amaewhule noted that the position of the Constitution gave the Speaker of the House the right to give effect to Section 109 (1) and by virtue of the provision of the Constitution, members have the right and must exercise it because of the division in the party.
According to him, the 27 members have all the particulars and evidence as referred to in the Constitution, concerning a division in PDP.
He said all the particulars and evidence that necessitated their defection to APC had been recorded in their files and sent to the House.
Amaewhule said they took the decision after Tinubu assured the leadership of Rivers APC that attention would be given to federal infrastructure in the state.
The factional Speaker added: “We analysed the president’s quick start of his assurance when he started with the reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Onne East-West Road.
“In no time, the road will become accessible to Port Harcourt Refinery, Onne Seaport, Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemist Limited, and a smooth ride to all the local governments connected to these areas.”
Amaewhule also cited the consistent federal appointments to Rivers people by Tinubu, irrespective of their parties, as their other reason for defecting to APC.
He said Tinubu’s agenda would expand the country’s economy, hence they decided to dump PDP and support the president to achieve the agenda.
The factional Speaker also accused the PDP of not condemning the demolition of the Assembly complex and regretted the alleged non-release of funding to the House by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
He said the non-release of funds to the House was against the law.
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