According to Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, if Enyinnaya Abaribe, the senator for Abia South, is no longer a part of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), his seat should be declared vacant.
After Abaribe and eight other senators defected to the African Democratic Congress, Bamidele made the statement at plenary on Thursday.
It was previously stated that at least nine senators from the APGA, Labour Party, and Peoples Democratic Party had defected to the ADC.
Discussions concerning the legality of the defections and the constitutional ramifications for the impacted MPs have been sparked by the development within the Senate.
In response, Bamidele emphasized that the constitution explicitly dealt with circumstances in which MPs defect from the political party they were elected to.
By God’s grace, I am more than just a lawyer—I am a lifesaver. I am knowledgeable about this law and my subject. Senator Abaribe stated that Section 68(1b) had anticipated the current state of affairs.
He claims that the legislation stipulates that a lawmaker’s seat may fall empty if certain conditions are met that would have rendered them ineligible to run for office under a specific political party.
“Any other situation that would have prevented you from being elected as a member, such as being employed by a political party, is mentioned.” Bamidele continued, “It is rather evident.
The Senate Leader, in spite of his stance, asked Abaribe to change his mind and retract the defection letter.
“Let’s give Senator Abaribe a chance to retract his letter, and then we continue to see how we can manage having him in this chamber,” he repeated.
Bamidele went on to say that lawmakers who do not support either the majority or minority blocs cannot be accommodated in the Senate.
He is currently not affiliated with any political party. Unless we are going to create a third aisle for those who don’t belong to either the majority or the minority, which the constitution has stated must not occur, he is neither a member of the majority nor the minority side,” he stated.
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