Senior Nigerian Advocate Kunle Adegoke has responded to the political unrest in Rivers State and the recent 27 legislators that defected from the PDP to the APC. He went into legal history, citing a judgment decided by the Supreme Court in 1983 that dealt with the problem of lawmakers switching political parties. He emphasized that a legislator from the House of Assembly or National Assembly is considered to have left their seat if they defect to another political party, according to a Supreme Court ruling.
He stated that this legal precedent was reinforced in subsequent cases, such as Abegunde in the Ondo State House of Assembly. According to him, the consistent position established by these rulings by the Supreme Court is that defection entails relinquishing the elected seat.
He said in an interview with TVC, ”About 1983, the issue cropped up whether a member of the house of assembly of National Assembly who defected to another political party can still be said to be lawfully returning the seat of the constituency on the platform of which party he was elected. And the Supreme Court ruled categorically that once a member of the House of Assembly or National Assembly, that is simply put a legislator defects from his political party on which he was elected to another political party, he has vacated his seat.
And this position was reiterated by the Supreme Court in Abegunde in Ondo state House of Assembly. The position has been consistent that once you defect from your political party to another, then you are regarded as having vacated your seat. You cannot continue occupying that seat because you were elected on the platform of that party. And the victory of that election belongs to the political party.”
