PDP Reacts To The Defection Of Party Rep Members To APC
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the leadership of the green chambers to declare the seats of its members, who decamped to APC vacant.
nigeriancablenews.com had earlier reported the defection of Hon. Ahmed Tijani from Kogi State and Zaphaniah Jisalo from the FCT of the Green Chamber from PDP yesterday on the ground of leadership crisis within the party.
In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Dayo Adeyeye, the party described the defection as a violation of the constitution and therefore asked the House to ensure the lawmakers vacate their seats as stipulated in the constitution. The statement reads thus in Part:
“In the light of this, we wish to inform all Nigerians and the leadership of the
National Assembly, most especially, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara, that the duo of Hon. Ahmed Tijani from Kogi State and Zaphaniah Jisalo from the FCT who
announced their defection from our party to the APC have embarked on illegal acts, contrary to the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution.
“Their excuses for defecting from our party are vague, cooked up and purely irrelevant to any section of the Nigerian Constitution.
“We thus expect and demand, that the Honourable Speaker and the body of Principal Officers of the
House of Representatives, act in accordance with the Oath of allegiance they took to defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by immediately ensuring that the seats of these defectors are declared vacant .
“In the face of tyranny that is gradually creeping on the nation, the least the leadership of the National Assembly can do, is to stick with the rule of law and uphold the dictates of the Constitution without fear or favour, without considering allegiance to any political affiliation.
“As a political party, we stand by the patriotic and constitutional position taken by Hon. Yakubu Barde from Kaduna and that of Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai from Delta State who stood against the dastardly act which these former members of our party exhibited in thevchambers of the House of Representatives when
their supposed letters of defection were read out by Speaker Dogara to whom the letters were submitted.
“We expect nothing aside a noble support by the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the rule of law and we say loud and clear that there is no division whatsoever in our party, the PDP that would have served as justification for the defections announced by the two members in the chamber.
“For clarity purposes, the Supreme Court has decided in a landmark judgment delivered on July 12, 2017, that there is no leadership crisis in the PDP and as such, the party under the acceptable leadership of the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) is the only leadership recognised by law as the authentic leadership of the PDP.
“We wish to point out clearly that anyone who announces any defection from the PDP, citing any sort of internal crisis is being a liar”, the statement read.
