Some opposition political parties in Rivers State have criticized the rescreening and confirmation of nine commissioner-designates by the state House of Assembly, describing the action as illegal.
The spokesperson of the Labour Party (LP), Gogo Welington, said this in Port Harcourt, claiming that the House is currently not properly constituted.
Welington further noted that the issue of the 27 legislators who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) is now a constitutional matter.
He said, “It is a constitutional matter and you know some of these matters are before the courts of competent jurisdiction. They should allow the courts to take their decision.”
Expressing his support for the recent protest by some groups in the state that the legislators must vacate their seats for cross-carpeting, he noted that the constitution is clear on the issue of defection.
“For the protest, the people are right, because the law is very clear that if you defect to another party, you are ready to vacate your seat if there is no internal wrangling in your party.
“And in the PDP, there is no wrangling. So the 27 members of the Assembly should know that their seats are already vacant because, constitutionally, they had already left the PDP,” he added.
Similarly, the state chairman of the Zenith Labour Party, Ben Ogbobula, explained that the courts should be allowed to make judgments on the issues since most of them are already in court.
“Following up the suits that are already in place, trying to determine their legality or illegality, because several suits have been instituted on this matter,
“So for them to continue to sit and act as though they are unaware of the laws that they are supposed to protect and make is something that calls for us to wake up as a people and demand that these people stop insulting our sensibilities as citizens of the state,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Rivers State House of Assembly screened and confirmed nine commissioner-nominees said to be loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who had earlier resigned from the administration of Governor Siminalayi Fubara in the heat of the crisis that rocked the governor and the minister.
The commissioners were asked to ‘take a bow and go’ after briefly introducing themselves, after which the Speaker of the House, Martin Amaewhule, directed the House Clerk to forward the names of the commissioner-designates to the governor for necessary action.
