PDP asks Tambuwal declare vacant seats of 37 defected Reps

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is definitely not ready to allow Wednesday’s defection of 37 members in the House of Representatives to the opposition All Progressive Congress, APC go unchallenged.

In its second statement on the issue within the last 24 hours, the party which has been turned to minority for the first time since the country returned to democracy in 1999 asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal to declare vacant the seats of the 37 Reps.

In the statement signed by Olisa Metuh, PDP national publicity secretary, the party said the defected lawmakers should lose their seats for abandoning the platform on which they were elected into the National Assembly.

“Since the affected members have renounced their membership of the PDP, we call on the presiding officer in the House of Representatives to declare the 37 seats vacant without any further delay.

“This action shall be in adherence to our grand norm, which is the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”

He also dismissed as false claims by the defectors that they had obtained a court injunction which restrained the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate from declaring their seat vacant.

“The attention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been drawn to claims by 37 defecting members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the PDP to the APC that they obtained an injunction restraining the leadership of the National Assembly and the party from declaring their seats vacant in line with provisions of the Constitution.

“We have, after a careful review, discovered that this claim is false. For the avoidance of doubt, the order of the court clearly says that status quo be maintained, which means the affected members shall remain members of the PDP.

“The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in section 68 (i) (g) clearly spells out the consequences of cross carpeting when there is no division in any party. We wish to re-emphasise here that the courts have pronounced, and INEC has concurred that there are no factions in the PDP.

“Nigerians are eagerly awaiting this call to duty as this will go a long way in demonstrating our commitment to the rule of law.”

Meanwhile, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the National Chairman of PDP also said on Thursday that members of the party who have defected to APC were being driven by their ambitions. Governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Musa Kwankwaso (Kano); Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) defected to APC late last November.

Tukur, said the five PDP governors were driven by their presidential ambitions while their 37 House of Representative counterparts have governorship ambition in their various states.

“The crises we are witnessing in PDP are about 2015. The promoters are members who wanted to be president at all costs and those who wanted to be vice president at all costs. Others were those who wanted to seek re-election as governors. Most of them felt if there was no crisis, their different ambitions would not be fulfilled,” Tukur was quoted as saying.

Tukur who said this while receiving a delegation of PDP youths from 19 northern states at his Abuja home, according to a statement issued by his office added that the calls for his removal is because he was seen as being the stumbling block to those ambitions