PDP vows to declare seats of defecting Reps vacant

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday threatened to ensure that two of its members in the House of Representatives who decamped from the party on Wednesday, lose their seats in the Lower Chamber.

The two Reps members: Tony Nwoye from Anambra state and Udende Emmanuel from Benue state had announced their decision to defect to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

In separate letters which were read on the floor of the House by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the lawmakers cited division in the PDP as the reason for their defection, explaining that the party had broken into three factions headed by Ali Modu Sheriff, Ahmed Makarfi and Jerry Gana, respectively, and that they did not wish to belong to any faction.

But in a statement signed by the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, BoT, of the party, Ojo Maduekwe, the party insisted that there was no faction in the PDP, stressing that there was only one approved National Convention which took place in Port Harcourt on Saturday 21st of May, 2016, which, it said, was, in accordance with the PDP Constitution.

The statement disclosed that the party “approved some far reaching resolutions that had the unanimous support of those who attended the Port Harcourt Convention with subsequent endorsements of another PDP political meeting that took place in Abuja on the same day”.

It stated that the conveners of the Abuja meeting had since integrated their positions with the structures and resolutions of the Port Harcourt Convention, adding that aggrieved members are being reconciled across the length and breadth of the country.

The statement read in part, “Subsequent meetings of, first, Board of Trustees members, and secondly, meetings with Governor’s Forum, Leadership of National Assembly and Former Ministers in PDP Government Forum, and a PDP Former Governor’s Forum, held, and decided to work together.

“The rank and file of the Party have resolved to work together, and PDP has never been stronger than it is now since its entry into the honourable role of a robust and principled opposition.

“Any suggestion of a faction, is at best ill-informed and ignorant, and at worst, is part of a grand plan to decimate the only political platform today, that is ready, experienced and able to honour the nation’s invitation to have a credible opposition party that will hold Government of the day accountable and thereby strengthen and nourish our young democracy.

“Let it therefore be understood by those of our members in the National Assembly who may be tempted to jump ship, or have already jumped, that on the basis of clear decisions of cases decided in the Supreme Court, they stand the risk of losing their seats in Parliament if they went ahead with their latest indulgence.”

The party threatened to declare vacancy and call for elections in affected constituencies in the event of such “misguided defections”, disclosing that “The pattern of PDP electoral victories all over the federation since the 2015 General Elections shows that where there is election arising from such vacancies, PDP will return a more credible and more loyal representative of the people.”