‘Nobody Can Remove Fubara’ – PDP Vows, Writes INEC To Conduct Elections Into 25 Rivers Assembly Seats

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has vowed to protect what it called the mandate of the people in Rivers State and officially informed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct elections into the 25 Assembly seats in the State.

This was the resolution arrived at the meeting of the National Working Committee of the party on Wednesday, a few hours after the Rivers State Governor, Simi Fubara ordered the demolition of the state assembly complex, according to party spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, who communicated the resolution.

The party said the 25 lawmakers elected on its platform lost their seats immediately after they defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Recall the PDP was hit by mass defections on Tuesday when 25 of the lawmakers considered to be loyal to the immediate past governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, joined the APC.

Wike, who’s serving as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory in the government of President Bola Tinubu has been fingered to be the brain behind the plot to impeach Fubara.

The governor was said to have refused to honour agreements reached with the minister before he was nominated to take the PDP governorship ticket ahead of the March election.

The cold war between the pair was blown open when some state lawmakers who owed their loyalties to Wike began sitting on a Sunday to impeach the governor.

The state assembly complex was gutted by fire the same weekend in what observers said was an attempt to stop the impeachment.

It polarised the assembly leading to the pro-Fubara and pro-Wike groups laying claims to the leadership of the house.

Despite the ruling of the court on Monday recognising the pro-Fubara lawmakers, the pro-Wike group announced their defection in their bid to impeach the governor.

But the PDP declared their defection a nullity and a breach of extant laws noting that they have lost their seats.

The party argued that by virtue of Section 109 (1)(g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the lawmakers vacated their seats by their action and called on the INEC to conduct fresh polls into the seats.

The party demanded that the “INEC should within the Constitutionally stipulated time, conduct fresh election in the 25 State Constituencies in Rivers State where vacancies now exist in the Rivers State House of Assembly as a result of the defection of the 25 now former members.”

It also directed its National Legal Adviser “to commence appropriate legal action with respect to the declaration of the seats of the 25 defected former members vacant and the conduct of fresh election into the 25 State Constituencies in Rivers State in accordance with the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”

The PDP vowed to “take every step necessary and available in a democracy to ensure that the votes and mandate of the people of the 25 State Constituencies in Rivers State are protected and not appropriated under any circumstance whatsoever.”