Ehie has no power to declare 27 lawmakers’ seats vacant — Lawyer

A legal professional, Emmanuel Anele, has claimed that the law does not provide Rivers state Assembly leader, Edison Ehie, the authority to declare the seats of 27 members who defected to an opposition party vacant in light of the continuing political unrest in the state.

The lawyer, who appeared live on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday, December 14, said that Ehie’s statement was in violation of the 1999 Constitution.

Following the defection of 27 lawmakers from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), led by Martin Amaewhule, a staunch supporter of former governor Nyesom Wike, Ehie declared the seats vacant on Wednesday.

The legal practitioner argued that this action does not adhere to the stipulations of Section 109, Subsection 1 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

He said: “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 hereby lose your seat.

“It’s on that ground that the speaker will now say, ‘In view of the judgement before me against the 27 lawmakers that defected, their seats have been declared vacant’,” Anele said.

“That section did not automatically empower the speaker to declare any seat vacant, unless the fact as to the issue of defection is determined by the court.”

“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 issue involving the 32-member Assembly stemmed from a disagreement between Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike. The group led by Amaewhule was prevented from entering the assembly building via force until the lawsuit was resolved by the Rivers High Court in Port Harcourt.

The situation worsened on Wednesday when the Assembly Complex was being demolished, and the governor gave the Ehie-led group the N800 billion 2024 budget projections at Government House.

The governor on Thursday assented to the 2024 Appropriation Bill after it was passed by the Ehie-led group in the Assembly.