Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele has asserted that the seat held by Abia South Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe must be declared vacant following his departure from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Bamidele made these remarks on Thursday during a plenary session where Abaribe and eight other lawmakers officially switched their allegiances to the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The Senate Leader’s call for the seat to be vacated came as a direct reaction to the wave of defections that saw nine senators from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and APGA move to the ADC.
Read Also: Abaribe, Umeh, Kingibe, Six Other Senators Defect To ADC
Bamidele argued that since Abaribe is no longer a member of the party under which he was elected, his continued stay in the chamber should be legally challenged.
Reacting, the Senate Leader said, “I’m not just a lawyer, by the grace of God, I’m a life bencher. I know this law and I know what I’m talking about. Section 68(1b) had envisaged the situation that Senator Abaribe is in today.
“It says any other circumstance that’s including being served by a political party that would have made you ineligible for election as a member. It is very clear.
“Again, I still say it, let us give Senator Abaribe an opportunity to withdraw his letter, and then we continue to see how we can manage having him in this chamber.
“Today, he’s not a member of any political party. He’s not part of the majority, he’s not part of the minority side, unless we are going to create a third aisle for people who don’t belong to either the majority or the minority, which the constitution has said must not happen.”
