PDP Begs Court:"Says Our Defected Lawmakers Must Lose Their Seats"

Abuja - When Senator Obanikoro and others decamped from their party to the PDP, did they lose his seat?.

 But the Peoples Democratic Party is insisting that its members in the National Assembly who dumped the party and joined the All Progressives Congress must lose their seats.

“Both the law and the PDP Constitution are very clear on the issues raised by the plaintiff. One cannot abandon the political party upon whose platform he was elected as a member of parliament and then proceed to another political party while holding unto that parliamentary seat. 

“Additionally, the law should take its course in that the seat of any of the plaintiffs who decamp to other political parties should be declared vacant.”

The PDP told an Abuja Federal High Court so in its preliminary objection to a suit filed by Senator Bello Hayatu and 50 others, including members of the House of Representatives who defected to the APC, to stop their seats from being declared vacant.

PDP, its National Chairman, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Reps, and the Independent National Electoral Commissioners, INEC, are listed as defendants in the suit, which came up for hearing on Wednesday before Justice Ahmed Mohammed.

Justice Mohammed adjourned the matter to January 29 to hear the preliminary objection, in the event that the originating summons would be ready for hearing.

Anyway, the members who defected to the APC are asking the court to restrain the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Reps from conducting any proceedings aimed at declaring their seats, and that of any other member of the PDP who intend to join another political party, vacant.

The court had ordered all the parties to maintain status quo, pending the determination of the matter.