The Forum of Former Speakers elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has declared support for the party’s move to take legal action against elected officials who defected to other parties while holding PDP mandates.
Describing the move by the PDP leadership as essential to safeguarding Nigeria’s democracy, the forum said recent defections by some members to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was a deliberate attempt by the ruling party to weaken the country’s multiparty democracy through intimidation of opposition figures into submission.
The forum stated this in a communique read by its Chairman and former speaker of Gombe State House of Assembly, Hon. Inuwa Garba, now a member of the House of Representatives, at the end of an emergency general meeting held in Abuja over the weekend.
It therefore warned of growing attempts by the APC to impose a one-party system through intimidation and infiltration of opposition political parties. “The forum appreciates the party for taking legal action against defectors especially those holding the party’s mandate in political offices.
“Nigeria is a country of more than 200 million people, diverse in social, religious and ethnic diversions from all zones of this country. When a political party or government is trying to twist every political party to dance to its tune with intimidation or coercion to belong to one party in Nigeria, I don’t think that is good for Nigeria, and that is undemocratic,” he stated.
He lamented that the country’s constitution is being relegated by institutions that are expected to protect same.
“We have a constitution in Nigeria, which to an extent is almost being sidelined by the key actors of democracy itself. The difference between a military junta and democratic government is first of all, the constitution. And once the constitution is considered insignificant, then democracy is heading to chaos,” he submitted.