Lawyers Weigh PDP’s Chances As Party Goes To Court

As the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) prepares to contest the defection of Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle, lawyers have warned that the effort could backfire.

This, they claimed, is due to the fact that the 1999 Constitution is silent on the ramifications of a serving governor switching parties.

Matawalle, who was a member of the PDP, had last week Monday dumped the party and joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), thereby, provoking the opposition party, which has in recent times, lost three serving governors to the APC including Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State and his Cross Rivers counterpart, Governor Ben Ayade.

Describing the move as an unpardonable act of betrayal, PDP had said it would ask the court to interpret the legality or otherwise of the defection. The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, noted that the matter had been established by the 1999 Constitution and a judgment of the Supreme Court.

He noted that the provisions of the Constitution is very clear in barring lawmakers from cross carpeting, except in a situation of a division in the political party on whose platform they were elected. Ologbondiyan went on to declare that “there is no division in the PDP to even warrant the defection of any of our lawmakers.