John Ameh, Abuja
Peoples Democratic Party members of the House of Representatives protested on Tuesday as another key member, Mr. Raphael Igbokwe, defected to the All Progressives Congress.
Igbokwe, who is from Imo State, first came to the House in 2011.
He defected on the floor of the House in the presence of the Imo State Governor, Mr. Rochas Okorocha, who came to witness it.
But, the action immediately stirred a protest by members of the PDP, especially when Igbokwe cited divisions in the party as his reason for dumping the PDP.
The PDP lawmakers, who were led by the Deputy Minority Whip, Mrs. Binta Bello, asked the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, not to allow the defection to stand.
Bello demanded that Dogara should ignore the reason given by Igbokwe and instead declare his seat vacant.
Citing Section 68 of the 1999 Constitution, Bello noted that Igbokwe was insulting the sensibilities of members by citing “divisions” as a reason for leaving the PDP.
She recalled that the recent Supreme Court judgement, which recognised the then Caretaker Committee led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi as the authentic leadership of the PDP, laid to rest any claim of divisions in the party.
Bello, who is from Gombe State, added, “Mr. Speaker, the PDP is one family and we don’t have any division. Our case was settled by the Supreme Court and a member cannot come here and be telling the House that the PDP has divisions. It is not true.”
More members, including the Chairman, House Committee on Ethics/Privileges, Mr. Nicholas Ossai, supported Bello, urging Dogara to ignore Igbokwe.
Ossai also argued that the Speaker ought to have caused Igbokwe’s claim that there were divisions in the PDP to be investigated before allowing it to stand.
The Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, rose to speak, but the PDP lawmakers quickly shouted him down.
They kept shooting “no,” “no,” “no” to every attempt Gbajabiamila made to make some points.
Gbajabiamila, an APC member from Lagos State, succeeded in saying that the fact of the apex court identifying one of the PDP factions as the authentic one, meant that there were indeed divisions.
Igbokwe had informed the House that he actually defected to the APC since January this year and had been paying his membership dues to the APC.
“You will recall that the judgment of the Supreme Court that finally resolved the leadership crisis was delivered in July 2017, six months after I joined the APC,” part of his defection letter read.
But, the PDP members countered him by saying that the announcement was made on the floor on Tuesday (yesterday), hence they would count the defection from the date he made it public to members.
Amid the protests, Dogara ruled in favour of the defection.
He noted that his understanding of Section 68(2) of the constitution would also imply that the House must first pass a resolution to decide whether to declare Igbokwe’s seat vacant or not.
“In this case, it will even be the decision of the majority and a losing battle already,” the Speaker ruled.
As the Speaker’s gavel came down, Bello jumped to her feet and beckoned to her fellow PDP colleagues to leave the chambers.
They complied and filed behind her and walked out of the floor in protest. The APC members shouted “bye-bye”, “bye-bye” as the PDP lawmakers left the chambers.
They later held a news conference where they were joined by other minority party lawmakers from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the Labour Party and the Accord Party.
At the news conference, Bello again restated her earlier position, which she presented on the floor.
The protests later ended and the PDP members returned to the chambers to continue with the day’s proceedings.
Igbokwe was the sixth member of the PDP to leave the party this year, with the APC being the main beneficiary.
His defection cut the numerical strength of the PDP to about 119.
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