TheCable

The board of trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised members of the party not to “jump ship”, vowing that the two members of the house of representatives who defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would lose their seats.

The two lawmakers  – Tony Nwoye (Anambra) and Emmanuel Udende (Benue)  – announced their defection on Wednesday, citing division in the PDP.

But Ojo Maduekwe, secretary of the BoT, described the action of the lawmakers as illegal, denying that there is a factional crisis in the opposition party.

“News has reached us of decisions by some PDP members to defect to another political Party on the pretext of the existence of a faction in PDP,” he said in a statement issued on Thursday.

“It is important to clarify unequivocally, that there is no faction in PDP. There was only one approved national convention which took place in Port Harcourt on Saturday 21st of May, 2016, which in accordance with PDP constitution, approved some far reaching resolutions that had the unanimous support of those who attended the Port Harcourt convention with subsequent endorsements of another PDP political meeting that took place in Abuja on the same day. The conveners of the Abuja meeting have since integrated their positions with the structures and resolutions of the Port Harcourt convention.

“Any suggestion of a faction, is at best ill-informed and ignorant, and at worst, is part of a grand plan to decimate the only political platform today, that is ready, experienced and able to honour the nation’s invitation to have a credible opposition party that will hold government of the day accountable and thereby strengthen and nourish our young democracy.

“Let it therefore be understood by those of our members in the national assembly who may be tempted to jump ship, or have already jumped, that on the basis of clear decisions of cases decided in the supreme court, they stand the risk of losing their seats in parliament if they went ahead with their latest indulgence. Our party will insist on a declaration of vacancy and subsequent elections in affected constituencies in the event of such misguided defections. The pattern of PDP electoral victories all over the federation since the 2015 general election shows that where there is election arising from such vacancies, PDP will return a more credible and more loyal representative of the people.”