A Nigerian lawyer, Chuks Uguru, says the current situation in the Rivers State Assembly is alarming, adding that holding plenary to discuss important state matters and deliberate on issues with only four members, after 27 lawmakers defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All-Progressives’ Congress (APC) is an aberration and should not have happened.
We reported that 27 lawmakers who were elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, decamped to the All Progressives Congress, APC, and announced their decision on Monday at a plenary at the Rivers Assembly Complex.
On Wednesday, just after the demolition of the State House of Assembly building on Moscow Road, Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, governor Siminalayi Fubara presented the 2024 Rivers State appropriation bill to the assembly under the speakership of Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie.
Uguru made this known during live appearance on a television programme on Thursday.
His words: “I have gone through that order with the microscopic thoroughness of a scientist searching for an invincible jam, and I am not able to see where the court gave it in promoter of authority to four members of the House of assembly to sit and legitimately transact the business of the house.
“I am aware that by the majestic provision of the constitution, in section 96 of the 1999 constitution, that the forum of the state house of assembly must be one-third of all the members. How four or five members can be equated to one-third in a house where you have over thirty members is an aberration, and as far as I am concerned, it cannot be justified.”
