Why PDP Lawmakers Who Join APC Won’t Lose Their Seats

“We have read reports that members of the National Assembly that follow us to APC will lose their seats. This cannot happen as it will be at variance with the relevant sections of our Constitution and electoral laws that guarantee the safety of the members of the National Assembly once their parent party is in crisis as PDP is at the moment. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no danger of their losing their seats as made clear by sections 68(1)(g) and 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) in relation to the status of members of a legislative house (state and national) who defect from the political parties from which they were elected to join another political party.”

This clarification was made in a statement by Chief Chukwuemeka Eze for the faction of PDP that joined APC, in Abuja, on Thursday.

He stressed that anyone thinking that the lawmakers could lose their seats were living in the past, adding that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guaranteed freedom of association.

He said since the APC was now having the majority in the National Assembly, the members would be covered by the Constitution, adding that there was nothing the Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee of the PDP could do to any defecting member of the PDP.