The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the call by the Leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to institute impeachment proceedings against Governor Siminalayi Fubara is an invitation to anarchy.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Abuja, on Wednesday, Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary of the party, said the lawmakers by leaving the PDP had vacated their seats.
He, therefore, called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to call the Rivers state APC Chairman, Chief Tony Okocha, to order to forestall the breakdown of law and order.
The PDP spokesman said the party is already in court and had written a petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the issue, adding that APC should perish the thought of taking over Rivers.
Ologunagba said “the individuals that the Rivers State APC Chairman directed to commence impeachment proceedings against Governor Fubara are not legally members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and cannot contemplate or exercise such powers under the law.”
Quoting the constitution he said, “a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if … (g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political Party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected…”
The party spokesman noted that “the unlawful directive by the Rivers State APC Chairman to these individuals to commence an impeachment proceeding against the Governor is therefore a brazen call for anarchy as it amounts to an attempt to forcefully overthrow a democratic Order in clear violation of Section 1 sub-section 2 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“The PDP draws the attention of the Inspector General of Police to the subversive utterances of the APC Chairman in Rivers State which is capable of triggering crisis and derailing the Democratic Order in the country.
“The APC must perish the thought of forcefully taking over Rivers State as such is a direct assault on the sensibility of the people which will be resisted firmly.
“The APC Chairman in Rivers State should come to terms with the fact that Rivers State is home to PDP and that the people of Rivers State are not ready to put their destiny in the hands of a corrupt, oppressive and anti-people Special Purpose Vehicle like the APC.
“The national leadership of the PDP expresses appreciation to the people of Rivers State for always standing with the PDP and urges them to continue to resist the APC in its vicious attempt to inject violence and destabilize the State.”
