Wike and Fubara
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The last may not have been heard about the controversy surrounding the defection of 27 lawmakers from the Rivers State House of Assembly from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The matter has taken a new turn as the APC has threatened to sanction them for making a volte face by denying their publicly celebrated defection.
Chief Emeka Beke, the Chairman of the APC in Rivers State, in a press briefing in Port Harcourt, the state capital, castigated the lawmakers for denying their defection from the PDP, insisting that having accomplished the action, they remain members of the APC.
Beke, an associate of Rotimi Amaechi, the former Minister of Transportation, declared that the lawmakers, led by Martin Amaewhule, cannot deny their membership of the APC after openly defecting from their former party and joining the APC.
Beke shredded Amaewhule’s recent claims that he and his colleagues were still members of the PDP.
The 27 lawmakers had actually announced their defection to the APC, in the heat of the battle betweenGovernor Siminalayi Fubara and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, for the control of the PDP structure in the state.
Following their defection, their seats in the State Assembly were declared vacant by pro-Fubara lawmakers.
The Action Peoples Party, APP, in the state also initiated a suit against them at the Federal High Court in Abuja, which Justice Peter Lifu recently dismissed, saying it was statute-barred.
However, the pro-Wike lawmakers, in a rather dramatic move, denied defecting to the APC but Beke, the state chairman of APC, described their denial as “shameful.”
“I want to put it on record that those 27 members of the House of Assembly are still members of the APC. The law is clear on defection. They cannot run away from the truth because we all know and saw it when they defected to our party.” Beke stated.
He recalled that the defection of the lawmakers was publicly celebrated, even at a reception ceremony hosted by Tony Okocha, the then Chairman of the CTC of Rivers State APC.
According to Beke: “They cannot sheepishly make a U-turn and yet be celebrated by the same Tony Okocha whom they are now denying. What a shame.”
