Hon. Saheed Popoola, member representing Balogun/Ojomu Ward in the Kwara State House of Assembly has declared that the Kwara State House of Assembly acted in disobedience of an order he had earlier secured from the State High Court to stop the move against him.
The State House of Assembly had on Wednesday declared the seat of Hon. Saheed Popoola vacant after he officially announced his defection from the All Progressive Congress (APC).
In a letter addressed to the INEC and dated March 28, 2022, Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Yakubu Danladi Salihu said the decision to declare the seat vacant is in line with the provisions of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution.
The Speaker’s letter reads: “Following the letter of Notification of defection by Hon. Saheed Popoola Adekeye from the APC to Social Democratic Party (SDP) which was read at the floor of the Hon. House on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 and with reference to a letter from the APC, Kwara State chapter, requesting for the declaration of Ojomu/Balogun State Constituency seat vacant, I wish to inform you that in accordance with Section 109 (1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended, the Ojomu/Balogun State Constituency seat with the defection of Hon. Saheed Popoola Adekeye from APC to SDP is deemed to have been automatically vacated by him since there is no division in the party on which platform he won the election in 2019”
But in a telephone message with Midlandpost, Hon Saheed explained that only the Court can declare his seat vacant, because he had earlier secured an order of injunction from the State High Court to stop the move against him. The House, he said disobeyed the order.
“I have told the court on Monday to stop them and they were served an injunction from the court yesterday, there was a court order by Justice Yusuf of the State High court, and they were properly served at the House, but they have declined and disobeyed the court order.
Hon Popoola further explained that his decision to jump ship of the All Progressives Party is not unconnected with the self-obsessed ploys that have fragmented the party over time.
But again, this explanation flies in the face of the House’s which says that the declaration of his seat as vacant joins several of such developments across the country, including recent court judgments on the issue.
The Speaker explained that the Supreme Court had held in several judgments that a political party can only be said to be divided where there are multiple national leaderships within the same party as a result of intractable crisis, brushing aside arguments that contentions at state or national levels could constitute such divisions on which elected officeholders could base their defection.
Mr Danladi said since there is no division in the APC, the lawmaker had no basis to dump it for another party.
He said the House had informed the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state of the development.
Comments powered by CComment