The 27 Rivers State House of Assembly lawmakers have said they joined All Progressives Congress because of President Bola Tinubu’s”Renewed Hope Agenda”.
Former Speaker of the Assembly Martins Amaewhule said this at a “Thanksgiving and stakeholders’ meeting” of APC on Sunday in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State.
He said that their defection was in line with section 109 of the 1999 Constitution “to make sure that we followed due process”.
“We made sure we did not do anything outside the 1999 Constitution.
“The Constitution has given room for people to defect, that’s why section 109 (1g) allows serving legislators, who want to defect to do so with a proviso that there is a division in the party.
“There is clearly a division in the PDP, so in line with this section we defected to APC,” Amaewhule said.
He also said that the position of the Constitution gave the speaker of the house right to give effect to Section 109 (1) and by virtue of the provision of the constitution, members have the right and must exercise it because of the division in the party.
According to him, the 27 members have all the particulars and evidence as referred to in the Constitution, concerning a division in PDP.
He said that all the particulars and evidence that necessitated their defection to APC had been recorded in their files and sent to the house.
Mr Amaewhule said that they took the decision after Tinubu assured the leadership of Rivers APC that attention would be given to federal infrastructure in the state.
“We analysed the president’s quick start of his assurance when he started with the reconstruction of the Port Harcourt-Onne East West Road.
“In no time, the road will become accessible to Port Harcourt Refinery, Onne Seaport, Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemist Limited and a smooth ride to all the local governments coonnected to these areas,” he said.
Mr Amaewhule also cited the consistent federal appointments to Rivers people by Tinubu, irrespective of their parties, as their other reason for defecting to APC.
He said that Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda would expand the country’s economy, hence they decided to dump PDP and support the president to achieve the agenda.
