GOVERNORS elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, urged the leadership of the House of Representatives to urgently declare the seats of the 37 federal lawmakers, who dumped the party for the All Progressives Congress, APC, vacant, if they failed to return.
The governors, who met in Dutse, Jigawa State, Tuesday night under the aegis of PDP Governors’ Forum, also urged delegates at the on-going National Conference to work towards the unity and interest of Nigeria, and hailed President Goodluck Jonathan for convening the conference.
In a text message at the end of the meeting, the governors commended the judiciary for its judgement, but warned that members who defected to APC should respect the rule of law.
It will be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had asked the 37 former members of PDP to resign their seats at the House of Representatives for defecting to APC.
The court perpetually restrained the legislators from effecting any leadership change in the National Assembly.
The presiding judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, who held that the lawmakers no longer had any business morally and legally in the assembly, asked them to honourably resign their seats as members of the House of Representatives, having moved to another political party while their tenure had yet to expire.
“Having perused the arguments of counsel and the constitutional provisions, it is clear and unambiguous that the defendants were sponsored by the PDP and won the election on its platform.
“It is also the court’s opinion that their tenure has not expired and there is no division in the PDP,” the judge added.
The PDP governors also congratulated Senator Iyiola Omisore and Chief Ayo Fayose for emerging the party’s flag-bearers in the forthcoming governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti states respectively.
They also resolved to hold the next PDP governors’ meeting in Bauchi on May 8 & 9, 2014.