Edo PDP vows lawsuit to reclaim defected lawmakers’ seats

The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has said that it will take legal action against the three members of the state House of Assembly who defected to the All Progressives Congress last week.

The Publicity Secretary of the Edo PDP Caretaker Committee, Chris Nehikhare, disclosed this in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday.

The lawmakers who recently joined the APC are  Donald Okugbe (Akoko Edo Constituency II), Bright Iyamu (Orhionmwon South Constituency II), and  Sunday Ojezele (Esan South East).

Additionally, Richard Edosa, the only Labour Party member in the Assembly, also decamped to the ruling APC.

With these defections, the APC now holds 13 seats, while the PDP has 11, and the Labour Party has lost its only member to the APC.

Edosa, speaking on behalf of the defected lawmakers, attributed their decision to leave their respective parties to the ongoing internal crises that plagued the parties at both the national and state levels.

But in an interview with our correspondent on Sunday, the Edo PDP spokesman dismissed the reason given by the defected lawmakers, saying the party would sue them to reclaim their seats in the House of Assembly.

Nehikhare said the party had already sued Ojezele, who defected earlier to the APC, adding that Okugbe and Iyamu would soon face similar legal actions.

He said, “First of all, three out of the four defectors are PDP members. Of those three, Hon. Sunny Ojezele defected earlier, and we have already taken him to court, seeking to declare his seat vacant and retrieve our mandate.

“Any of our elected officials who decamp to another party will definitely be taken to court. Those who decamp got elected on the platform of our party, so it is our mandate, and we will use legal means to reclaim it.”

Nehikhare expressed confidence in a favourable outcome in the court cases.

“The law is clear on what happens when someone defects to another party, and we expect the law to be followed to the letter in the case we have instituted and the one we will institute against the others,” he added. “They have no basis for defecting because there is no division in our party, either in Edo State or at the national level. We have one leadership, one secretariat at both levels.”