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.
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.
Rivers: Law does not recognise any sitting outside assembly complex – Falana
A human rights activist, Femi Falana, has said any sitting by the Rivers State House of Assembly outside its complex is not recognised by the law.
Falana stated this while speaking about the political crisis in Rivers on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, monitored by newsmen.
The state governor, Similanayi Fubara, on Friday issued an executive order for the immediate and temporary relocation of the sitting of the Rivers State Assembly to the Auditorium, Admin Block of the Government House, Port Harcourt.
In an official Gazette, Executive Order of the Rivers State Government 001-2023, Fubara cited the unsafe state of the House of Assembly complex.
According to Falana, the move by Fubara negated the principle of separation of power, stressing that the legislature is independent of the executive.
“I would like to assume that the governor issued that executive order before the intervention of the High Court in Rivers State. The House is independent of the executive, so the governor cannot tell the house where to sit.
“This was very clear in the Oyo State case, which led to the impeachment of Governor Ladoja, whereby, under the influence of the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the House was alleged to have sat in a hotel and the Supreme Court made that point abundantly clear that an impeachment carried out in a hotel deviates clearly from the Constitution.
“So any sitting of the House outside the premises of the House of Assembly complex will not be known to law; will not be recognized by law,” he said.
Falana said if there was a need for a sitting elsewhere, the members of the House of Assembly, properly constituted, would have to decide where to carry out their meeting.
