Order return of 37 defected Reps, PDP tells court

The Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday asked an Abuja Federal High Court to order 37 former members of the party in the House of Representatives, who defected to the All Progressives Congress on Wednesday, to return to the party.



PDP asked the court to declare the defection as “null and void”, noting that if not reversed, it might lead to a breakdown of law and order in the National Assembly and the entire polity.

The defection of the lawmakers had given the APC a simple majority in the House, increasing its numerical strength from 135 to 172, against 171 PDP members.

However, PDP and its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur – who are the 4th and 1st defendants/respondents in a pending suit in which the defected lawmakers asked the Abuja FHC to stop any move to declare their seats vacant in the event of their defection – have gone to court to challenge the development.

In the suit filed by its counsel, Joe-Kyari Gadzama, SAN, on Thursday, PDP maintained that the defection contravened the order made by the Abuja FHC on December 17, 2013, when counsel for the 37 lawmakers tried to move a motion for interlocutory injunction, seeking to stop plans to declare their seats vacant.

According to PDP, the Abuja FHC had on December 17 ordered the 37 lawmakers to revert back to the status quo, pending the hearing and determination of their motion for interlocutory injunction.

PDP is therefore asking the Abuja FHC for “an order declaring the defection, on December 18, 2013, by 37 of the plaintiffs from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress as null and void and contrary to the Order made on Tuesday, the 17th day of December, 2013.”