USA Africa Dialogue Series - CARPET CROSSING IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Yesterday, Monday, 30 July 2018, the news broke out that eight members of Benue State House of Assembly, have suspended twenty-two members of the House that defected from the APC along with the Governor, Ortom, to the opposition PDP, while the Governor himself has been served with impeachment notice. The Governor reacted by saying it is only in a 'Shit hole country' that eight members of the House can suspend 22 members and impeach the Governor. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/07/breaking-governor-ortom-impeached-by-eight-benue-apc-lawmakers/ 

Voices are now being raised by the political opponents of APC that the action of the eight members of Benue House of Assembly is illegal and unconstitutional. I beg to disagree.

The 1999 Constitution as amended does not permit independent candidates to contest any election, whether states, local or federal elections in Nigeria. Anybody seeking to participate in any election must be a member of a political party and must be sponsored by that party. Constitutionally, the electorates vote for the political party and any person so elected is holding  his/her elected post in trust for or on behalf of the party on which platform one is elected. Consequently, if an elected person leaves the party on which he/she is elected, one loses the elected office. One cannot be elected without being a member of a political party that sponsors one and logically one cannot after being elected trade away the mandate given to the party by the electorates to another party. To allow such is not only a political halotory but fraud against the electorates. In view of the aforesaid, the 22 members of the Benue House of Assembly lost their seats in the House immediately they announced their exit from APC to PDP because they were neither members of the PDP nor were they sponsored by the PDP when they contested and won their seats. The only legitimate members of the House left were the eight APC members and they have the right to legislate and impeach a Governor who is no longer a member of the political party, the APC, that sponsored him to win the Governor's Office.

In 2015, the budget of Ekiti State was passed by six members of the State's House of Assembly who had suspended nineteen APC members of the House and who the Governor, Ayo Fayose, drove out of the State with the Federal might exerted by the then PDP President, Jonathan. Therefore, there is a legal precedent from Ekiti State. If six out of twenty-five members could suspend nineteen members, pass budget and make laws in Ekiti State in 2015, why should it be unconstitutional for eight members out of thirty to suspend twenty-two members in Benue State and impeach political prostituting Governor? 

S. Kadiri