SPEAKER of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Ehie Edison, has written the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) asking it to immediately fill vacancies that exist in the Assembly.
Specifically, the Speaker asked INEC to immediately conduct elections to fill vacancies created by the detection and loss of membership by the defectors.
The vacancies, the Speaker said, followed a resolution of the House which on December 13, 2023, passed a motion to declare the seats of the 25 members that decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), vacant.
According to a letter dated December 14 and received at INEC on December 15, and signed by Speaker Ehie, it said the resolution to fill the vacant seats was in line with Section 109(2) of the Nigerian constitution.
The letter titled “Notice of vacancies in the River’s State House of Assembly Under Section 109(1)(G) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Request for Conduct of Fresh Elections in the 25 State Constituencies in the Rivers State House of Assembly” reads:
“I write to formally bring to your notice vacancies in the seats of the under-listed constituencies and membership under Section 109(1)(g)of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“The under-listed members who represented the respective Constituencies indicated against their names jointly and severally decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under whose platform they were elected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the day 11th of December 2023, As a result, by Section 109 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and by Resolution of the House at the 90th Legislative Sitting of the Rivers State House of Assembly held on
Wednesday. 13th day of December 2023, their seats were declared vacant.
“Consequently, I write on behalf of the Rivers State House of Assembly to kindly request for a by-election to be conducted to fill the vacant seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly.”
