By EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR & DAPO AKINREFON

Prominent civil rights activists, yesterday, described as laughable and illegal the decision of the new executive of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State to declare the seats of 27 members of the House of Assembly vacant.

Besides, the combatants in Rivers State were warned that their actions could pose a danger to the nation’s democracy given what was described as the reckless abuse of due procedure.

Among those who spoke were leading constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN, erstwhile Minister of Petroleum Affairs, Prof. Tam David-West, leading civil rights activist, Bamidele Aturu and member of the House of Representatives, Peterside Dakuku.

They were in agreement that the PDP state executive lacked the power to declare the seats of the 27 members in the House of Assembly vacant

Responding, Prof. Sagay said the suspension by the party in the state did not bar the lawmakers from carrying out their legislative functions, describing the action as an act of intimidation on those perceived to be against the president’s re-election plans.

He said: “It does not affect their status as legislators. It has absolutely no effect at all. All that happened is that, if the suspension remains, they cannot be sponsored in any election by the PDP.”

Affirming that the members were not in any way threatened by the suspension, he said: “The whole thing is part of the intimidation to terrorise anyone who is seen not to support the president’s second term ambition. I don’t think this sort of tactics is going to get us anywhere”.

Speaking on the development, Prof. David-West said: “I have been following this issue for some time and what is happening in Rivers State should distress any responsible Rivers person or Nigerian. Governor Amaechi has not done any wrong that we know, if he has done any wrong, let them come up with it.

“He is doing very well in Rivers State and he is popular. Now, the question is: Can the state executive suspend elected members and declare their seats vacant? That should be done by the Central Working Committee of the party after proper investigation. This is causing unnecessary destabilization in Rivers State because Amaechi is doing well.”

Continuing, he said “If you have any party problem, must everybody in the state suffer because not everybody in the state is a member of the PDP. Do they have the power to declare seats of lawmakers vacant? These are elected members, they do not have the power to do that.

Though they are suspended from the party, but they are still members of the House of Assembly. The party cannot remove them. They are still lawmakers of Rivers state. It is just that, they are no longer members of the party. The whole episode is disturbing to me. The seats were given to them by the electorate who elected them.”

Civil rights activist and lawyer, Aturu on his part described the assertion credited to Obuah as laughable even as he warned the political class not to destroy the nation’s democracy.

“That is a huge joke, the party cannot declare the seat of a lawmaker vacant under the constitution, that is a huge and very laughable development and I don’t think anyone should take that seriously because the procedure for declaring a seat vacant does not include a political party waking up and then declaring the seat of its members vacant.

“They have no role to play as far as I am concerned, I think that is something that should be ignored.”

Warning on the threat to the nation’s democracy from the political class, he said: “But I think that these politicians are trying to overheat the system and I think we need to warn them to desist from these careless behaviour, these reckless acts because if they bring down this democracy they will have themselves to blame because this kind of development is really worrisome. Some people just wake up and they begin to behave as if they are a law unto themselves. I think this culture of impunity is becoming too much.”

Also flaying the action, Hon. Peterside Dakuku, a member of the House of Representatives said:

“The alleged suspension of members of the House of Assembly simply shows the degree of ignorance of the characters parading themselves as PDP officials in Rivers State. crass display of ignorance. Their action is simply laughable and all serious minded persons will ignore them.”

“It is null and void and there are two reasons for this. Suspension must emanate from the various wards and local governments, so it is simply ridiculous, it is something laughable and should be ignored.”