The Kwara State House of Assembly yesterday declared the seats of Hon. Saba Yisa Gideon of Edu Constituency and Hon. Olusola Odetundun of Irepodun Constituency vacant following their defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The lawmakers’ decision followed a letter from the APC chairman, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, addressed to the Speaker of the House, Engr. Salihu Yakubu-Danladi, requesting the vacation of the seats in accordance with Section 109(1)(g)(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
Fagbemi stated in the letter that since the two members were elected under the APC and there was no division within the party, they had no constitutional right to abandon the party for another.
Leading the debate on the request, the Leader of the House, Hon. Abdulkadir Magaji, emphasised that the matter was constitutional, as outlined in Section 109(1)(g) of the Constitution.
He noted that Gideon and Odetundun had left the APC for the PDP and were seeking re-election to their seats on the platform of the opposition party, a development he claimed contravened the Constitution.
Magaji, therefore, supported the APC chairman’s request that the seats of the two defecting lawmakers be declared vacant in accordance with the law.
The Speaker of the House, Engr. Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, thereafter declared the seats of the two defecting members vacant in accordance with Section 109(1)(g)(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
But the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rejected the declaration of the seats of Odetundun and Gideon vacant by the State House of Assembly.
It described the Assembly’s action as politically motivated and an attempt to punish the victims for exercising their constitutional and political rights.
The party, in a statement signed by its state publicity secretary, Olusegun Adewara, said, “It was particularly disturbing that the process was initiated on the strength of a letter from the APC state chairman, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, who is not a constituent from the affected constituencies, effectively turning the State House of Assembly into an extension of the APC’s internal disciplinary machinery.”
“We challenge the House to make public the evidence presented before it and demonstrate that the requirements of Section 109(2) of the 1999 Constitution were duly complied with before such a consequential decision was taken.”
