Rivers Crisis: PDP Speaks On Why 27 Lawmakers Defect To APC

Following the recent defection of 27 House of Assembly members in Rivers State, to the main opposition party, the state spokesperson of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Tambari Sydney Gbara has said the party is not aware of the reasons they defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

New Telegraph had earlier reported that 27 out of 31 lawmakers in the state assembly, on Monday morning during plenary, announced their defection to the APC, citing division within the PDP as the basis for their action.

Speaking on the development, Gbara who said the PDP had no idea why the lawmakers decided to leave the party described the declaration that the seats of legislators had become vacant as a purely legislative issue.

He said the party was still reaching out to the defected lawmakers to see if they could rescind their decisions.
“Every adult has freedom of association, and as a party, we have taken the action as it happened, and we are moving on,” he said

Speaking further, he explained that the demolition of the House of Assembly complex by Governor Siminalayi Fubara was purely an executive matter.

“The Commissioner for Information and Communications said the governor wants to build a more befitting edifice for the House of Assembly. You would recall that the immediate past governor also demolished the lawmakers’ quarters and built more befitting quarters for them,” he said.