3rd Oct, 2017
7:40am
According to an impeccable source, the PDP stakeholders in the state held a meeting at the residence of one of the former Governor’s in Abuja over the weekend to deliberate on the rumoured plan of the Honourable member representing Lokoja II State Constituency at the Kogi State House of Assembly, Hon. Idris Ndako to dump their party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC).
The meeting which lasted for several hours discussed vital issues in respect of the prospect of the party in the coming general elections in the state which
includes membership drive and how many big wigs of the party in the state like former House of Assembly members, Local Government Chairmen, Commissioners, women leaders, youth leaders and other prominent members of the party that have defected to the ruling party can be brought back.
Our correspondence gathered that one of the former Governor is now on daily basis making phone calls to some of the people to beg them to return to the party as they are not comfortable with the leadership style of the current administration led by Alhaji Yahaya Bello who have change the status quo from the traditional way of governance to digital and modern way of governance where the youths are now the major key players, which was a taboo under the previous administrations in Kogi State.
The meeting frown at the proposed plan of Hon. Idris Ndako to defect to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state, noting that the leadership of the party will not fold its arms and lose the lawmaker to the APC.
According to one of the leaders of the Party from Lokoja who attended the meetings, the party promised to challenge the lawmaker in court if he dare dump the PDP, pointing out that the position of the Electoral Act 2011 as amended is clear on the conditions that can permit any legislator to defect from the party on whose platform he was elected.
He said since the leadership crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is settled and they now have a well structured and define party leadership, there is no lawful reason for Hon. Ndako to abandon the party that made him, what he is today.
He said Hon. Ndako’s mission to defect to the All Progressive Congress (APC) is predicated on greed and self-centredness, noting that it is neither in the interest of the people nor that of the party.
He further explained that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lokoja Local Government believes in rotation arrangement that have strengthened the party in the area, pointing out that the lawmaker is kicking against the arrangement that aided his emergence which is why he is planning to run away from the party, forgetting the fact that despite of his inadequacies then, the party still supported him.
‘If not for greed, selfishness and inordinate ambition; what is good about the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the country, and Alhaji Yahaya Bello led administration in Kogi State, that a lawmaker elected on the platform of the PDP will want to join the APC? Is it the hunger, no salaries and maladministration that have become the order of the day? That means Hon. Ndako has concluded plans to join the oppressors to aggravate of the same people he claimed to represent’; the party stalwart posited.
That a lawmaker can cross carpet due to verifiable proofs that there are crises within his party, and as today, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has since settle the rift and internal crisis that almost tore the party apart between 2015 and early 2017 before the Supreme Court of Nigeria laid it to rest, by affirming the leadership of Makarfi led faction as the authentic leadership of the party.
According to the Electoral Act as amended in 2011 by the National Assembly, a lawmaker at any level risk to lose his or her seat if he or she deliberately decided to dump his party that sponsor him or her for the election without any verifiable crisis in his or her former party.
“In respect of the Senator, House of Representative members and State Legislators, the 1999 Constitution as amended specifically in section 68(1)(g) and (2) and 109ig) (2) only makes provisions for the tenure of members of the legislature and not that of the executive.
The provisions clearly state that a state or federal lawmakers must vacate his or her seat after defecting to another political party, member of the Senate or House of Representative shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if (g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party before the expiration of the period for which that house was elected provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or faction by one of which he was previously sponsored”.
Meanwhile, it will be recalled that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had challenged the 6 lawmakers that decamped to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in court asking them to vacate their seats since they have since lost confidence in the party that sponsored them for the position.
According to the lawmakers then, one of the reasons they left the party was predicated on the protracted crisis that engulfed the leadership of the party between the Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Mekarfi factions.
Mr. Bode Ogunmola, the Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State has continually threatened to sue any lawmaker that decide to abandon their party for another platform without any just cause, stressing that the PDP is well prepared to unseat the APC in the coming elections in the state.
The case which is still in court is awaiting judgment on the 11th October, 2017.
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