ELECTIONS FOR 27 DEFECTED RIVERS LAWMAKERS’ SEATS WERE CEASE BY INEC

abatunji Wusu –

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is prohibited from holding new elections to fill the seats of the 27 Rivers House of Assembly members who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

On Friday, December 15, 2023, Justice Donatus Okorowo rendered a decision in response to an ex-parte application filed by Peter Onuh, the lawyer for the MPs who had defected.

In order to allow for the hearing and resolution of the notice motion, the judge also prevented the INEC, PDP, and the House of Assembly from declaring their seats empty and removing their corresponding Certificates of Return.

The applicants are the speaker, deputy speaker, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, respectively. Justice Okorowo also issued “an interim order of injunction restraining all the defendants from interfering with or impeding in any way or attempting to interfere with or impede in any way the performance of the applicants’ official and legislative functions, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

The court ruled: “An order of interim injunction is hereby granted restraining the defendants/respondents, jointly and or severally, by themselves or their agents, from interfering with or impeding in any way or attempting to interfere with or impede in any way the full enjoyment of the official rights and privileges of the plaintiffs/applicants as the speaker, the deputy speaker and members, respectively, of the Rivers State House of Assembly, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

“An order of interim injunction is hereby granted restraining the 5th and 6th defendant (I-G and DSS), by themselves, officers, subordinates, servants or agents from denying or refusing to provide security for the plaintiffs or howsoever withdrawing their security details or personnel or failing to provide details or personnel or failing to provide adequate security for the plaintiffs/applicants for the purpose of enabling them to continue with the performance of their constitutional legislative and oversight functions pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”