Gale Of Defections: Lawyer Blames Constitutional Provisions

A Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner and public affairs analyst, Barr Chioma Choko has blamed the indiscriminate defection of politicians in the country from one political party to another on openings created in the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) with regard to the subject matter.
Barr Choko made the assertion while exchanging views with The Tide in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, recently.
According to the lawyer, even though the constitution talks about the incidence of a division or crisis within a political party as a condition precedent for an elected member to move from his political party to another, the same constitution is not clear about what constitutes a division or crisis.
“Yes, we acknowledge that there are provisions (in the constitution) that allow a particular candidate (elected member) to move without approaching the court, the provisions of the law regulating this particular activity is not clear as to the definition of certain acts of that particular political party that can be concluded by members of the public to mean acts that are inconsistent with the rules and regulations of the political party,” he said, adding that “this, as a matter of fact, has given leeway to political party members who would want to move from where they say they’re no longer comfortable to a particular political party where they feel that their interest will be secured”.
With specific reference to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lawmakers in the Imo State House of Assembly who defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC, Barr Choko, who is also a member of the APC in Rivers State said the legislators action could only be self-serving.
“In the case of Imo State, a large number of the society will agree with me that what is playing out there cannot be said to mean crisis in the political party that should warrant the defection of members of that political party.
“The members that have left the PDP for the APC do not have a good excuse or reason for which they have elected to so do. So, I have reason to conclude that these persons are not serving the interest of democracy.
“They, at every point in time, seem to be protecting their personal interest rather than the interest of their constituencies. They seem to be protecting their pockets. They seem to be protecting whatever monetary interests that may accrue to them as members of that particular house”, he argued.
Asked if he was excited to see the defectors move into the APC, the party stalwart said beyond swelling the numerical strength of the party and providing possible cover for the chief executive of the state, there was nothing useful to expect from them.
“If you look at the integrity of these persons, the question we will have to ask ourselves is ‘what do they really have to offer?
“These are persons who are coming to extract from the political party; they’re coming to extract from the executive arm of the government; they’re coming to benefit from where they did not work; they’re coming to rip off the state’s resources. So, it is not a good reason for me to rejoice for anything. They have nothing to offer”, he said.

By: Opaka Dokubo