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Defections in the Nigeria's red chamber have made the main opposition party – PDP – to lose a number of its members to the ruling APC.
They are:
1. Senator Yele Omogunwa - Ondo South Senatorial District
2. Senator Joshua Dariye - Plateau Central Senatorial District,
3. Senator Nelson Effiong - Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District,
4. Senator Andy Uba - Anambra South
5. Senator John Enoh - Cross River Central
6. Senator Ovie Omo-Agege - Delta Central Senatorial District
In a report by FELIX NWANERI on New Telegraph, he said the framers of the Nigerian Constitution were not unmindful of the harm that unguarded defection by legislators could cause to polity, which explained the wisdom behind the provision of section 68(1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The section states that: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives 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, he becomes a member of another 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 factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
But this constitutional provision aimed at curbing lawmakers, both at the federal and state levels, from jettisoning the platforms on which they were elected at the slightest reason, seems to have been defeated given the way legislators are jumping ship at will in the present dispensation.
They are:
1. Senator Yele Omogunwa - Ondo South Senatorial District
2. Senator Joshua Dariye - Plateau Central Senatorial District,
3. Senator Nelson Effiong - Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District,
4. Senator Andy Uba - Anambra South
5. Senator John Enoh - Cross River Central
6. Senator Ovie Omo-Agege - Delta Central Senatorial District
In a report by FELIX NWANERI on New Telegraph, he said the framers of the Nigerian Constitution were not unmindful of the harm that unguarded defection by legislators could cause to polity, which explained the wisdom behind the provision of section 68(1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The section states that: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives 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, he becomes a member of another 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 factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
But this constitutional provision aimed at curbing lawmakers, both at the federal and state levels, from jettisoning the platforms on which they were elected at the slightest reason, seems to have been defeated given the way legislators are jumping ship at will in the present dispensation.
