PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
A constitutional lawyer, Joseph Oloko has said that socketing to the centre is not a legal reason for defecting from one political party to another.
Oloko disclosed this in an interview with Journalists while reacting to the recent court order sacking Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State.
The Calabar based legal practitioner also hailed the judgement of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo.
He affirmed that the judge got it totally right and the judgment is sacrosanct.
In his words, “Socketing to the centre is not a legal reason for defection.
“When you want to defect as a legislator, the provision of Section 109 of the constitution comes to play.
“It tells you how you must defect. For it to be successful, there must be division at the national level of your party.
“At the time they defected, the PDP was a very peaceful party without division and the national chairman, Uche Secondus was doing well.
“When they defected, they said they were socketing to the centre but socketing to the centre is not one of the conditions listed in Section 109 for defecting”, he said.
On the recent Federal High Court Judgment, he said ” It is clear that the decision of Justice Ekwo is very sacrosanct.
“People talk about Section 308 which gives immunity and refer to Atiku Abubakar’s case, but I want to say how was the immunity derived. What generated that immunity is it not the election?, He queried.
He also explained that the PDP as a party has several thousands of people and even though one may be the leader of the party, his right is not different from that of any other member of the party.
It would be recalled that governor Ben Ayade last year said he was socketing to the centre by joining the All Progressives Congress APC and 18 lawmakers.
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.
Leave a Reply