Imposing a 3-man House of Assembly is executive lawlessness, APC tells Fubara
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the attempt by the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara to establish an unauthorized House of Assembly with three members is the height of executive lawlessness.
The APC stated this through a press statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka.
The party said the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution cannot be altered by Governor Fubara, saying he cannot serve as both the governor and the dominant force in the Rivers State House of Assembly.
“Governor Fubara’s quest to repudiate the Constitution and govern in denial of the existence of the state legislature is, in and of itself, among other grounds, an impeachable offence,”
It added that contrary to the claims by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the APC is not advocating for Governor of Rivers State Siminalayi Fubara’s impeachment. Rather, the governor, the party maintained is deliberately and strongly inciting his impeachment through his heinous deeds, mannerisms, and crude remarks.
According to the party, in addition to being rash, Governor Fubara’s claim that the Rivers State House of Assembly does not exist violates the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution which it argued, gave rise to the House of Assembly which possesses state legislative authority.
It added that in the same way that Fubara was chosen as governor, the good people of Rivers State chose the Assembly members. According to the party, the central institution of democracy is the legislature which shares equal standing with the judicial and executive branches of government.
The APC opined that if his claim that the House of Assembly doesn’t exist is based on the fact that the 27 members who switched from the PDP to the APC lost their seats,’ Governor Fubara is sorely misled.’
“To be clear, the 27 Assembly members did not lose their membership of the Assembly by virtue of their decampment. There is nothing homeostatic about Section 109(1)(g) of the Constitution. It is not self-executing. The Proviso to the said Section 109(1) (g) established exceptional grounds to the applicability of Section 109(1)(g) Section 109(1) states: A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if – (S.109(1)(g) – being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before expiration of the period for which that House was elected:
“Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
The APC stressed that determining whether a member of the House of Assembly has resigned in line with that clause of the Constitution can only be done by a duly established court of law, adding that the 27 APC members of the House of Assembly continue to be the legally recognized and permitted members of the Rivers State House of Assembly since no such judicial decision has been made.
It said the governor’s statement contradicts a legal case that some state elders have brought, which concerns the legal standing of the 27 members of the PDP who defected to the APC and that his assault on the House of Assembly and its leadership is a violent breach of the Constitution’s specific provisions and a blatant disregard for a court of law’s order.
