Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, says that members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, last year, have forfeited their positions.
Newspot recalls that about 25 members of the state assembly who are loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike dumped the PDP for the APC following the face-off between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the Minister.
The move by the lawmakers led to the establishment of another faction of the assembly as the governor declared their seats vacant.
Despite intervention from President Bola Tinubu, the crisis has continued.
Speaking on the matter, Falana who appeared on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, asserted that the lawmakers would be ousted from their seats for transitioning to the APC.
According to him, the constitution has made it clear that “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 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.
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