15 sacked Ebonyi lawmakers declare 3 seats vacant
Fifteen Ebonyi state House of Assembly lawmakers, who were recently sacked by an Abuja High Court, Thursday, declared the seats of three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members vacant.
The lawmakers, Ali Okechukwu (Ishielu North), Franca Okpo (Abakaliki North) and Victor Aleke (Ebonyi West) were elected under the (PDP).
The seats were declared vacant following letters of resignation purportedly written by the lawmakers.
The letters were read by the Speaker of the House, Francis Nwifuru during an emergency sitting of the House.
Three lawmakers and the other five from PDP were not present at the sitting, whereas all the 15 All Progressives Congress (APC) members, sacked by the ruling of Justice Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, attended the sitting.
After reading the letters, Mr Francis Nwifuru declared their seats vacant.
He also ordered the clerk to write to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) notifying the commission of the development and the need to conduct fresh elections in the affected constituencies.
But the three lawmakers involved maintained that they are still members of the House of Assembly.
Speaking on their behalf in a telephone interview, Mr Victor Aleke described the actions of the speaker and the APC lawmakers as illegal.
According to him, the speaker and the other APC lawmakers, having been sacked by a Federal High Court in Abuja have ceased to be lawmakers and should not have sat in the first place.
“What they have done today by purporting to sit and declare our seats vacant amounts to contempt of court and the court may relate them wanted if care is not taken”.
“We have no reason whatsoever to resign our seats. We are still Lawmakers representing our various constituencies and we enjoin our supporters and the general public to disregard what they have done,” Aleke said.
