Judgment: PDP to decide on defected Reps Wednesday

Olisah Metuh

The Peoples Democratic Party will on Wednesday decide  whether or not, it will insist on the removal of  its House of Representatives members, who defected to the All Progressives Congress.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisah Metuh, stated this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja while commenting on a judgment of a Federal High Court.

The Federal High Court in Abuja, had in a judgment on Monday declared as unconstitutional, the defection of the PDP House of Representatives members to the APC.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola, had, in his judgment on a suit filed by the PDP, stated that since the lawmakers’ defection was illegal, they could not validly function as members of the House.

He had said the legislators were not competent to sponsor or contribute to any motion calling for a change in the leadership of the House, including the election of its principal officers.

When asked about the move by the PDP to unseat the 37 members of the House, who defected to the APC, Metuh said  the ruling party had not discussed the judgment.

He stated, “We have not discussed it at the NWC (the National Working Committee). We will discuss the judgment on Wednesday.  We are law-abiding citizens; we will study the judgment and understand what it says.”

He also took a swipe at the APC, saying the opposition party was harassing the judiciary.

The PDP spokesman accused the APC of hostility against democratic institutions in the country.

Metuh stated, “What we have witnessed is the systematic harassment and intimidation of the judiciary. We are raising the alarm about the threat and declaration of hostility against democratic institutions by the APC.”

He added that the opposition party was fond of condemning any judgment that was not in its favour.

Efforts to get reactions of Metuh’s counterpart in the APC, Mr. Lai Mohammed, did not succeed as he did not pick calls to his mobile phone, neither did he respond to an SMS sent to him at the time of sending this report.
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