The Supreme Court of Nigeria has ordered Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde, a lawmaker representing Akure South/North Federal Constituency of the Ondo State to immediately vacate his seat following his defection from the Labour Party, (which was the political party that sponsored his election and under which he was elected as lawmaker into the federal House of Representatives) to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
The supreme court in its unanimous judgement held that the lawmaker who decamped from the Labour Party to the Action congress of Nigeria (now All Progressive Congress) is constitutionally unfit to retain his seat as a federal lawmaker in the federal House of Representatives.
The federal House of Representatives member dumped the Labour Party for the Action Congress of Nigeria in 2011 for the claim that there was an internal party crisis in the Labour Party which forced him to leave the party for the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
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The Labour Party had gone to court praying the court to declare Hon. Ifedayo’s seat vacant in line with s. 68(1) (g) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which provides that “a member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if- being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected”.
By the implication of this section of the constitution, any lawmaker (be it a senator or House of Representatives member) who dumps his political party, a party under which he was elected, shall vacate his seat at the lawmaking house.
To this effect, In a unanimous judgement yesterday of the seven manned bench of the Apex Court, the court declared that Hon. Ifedayo Abegunde by the reason of his decamping from the Labour Party to the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, is constitutionally unfit to remain in the legislative house and he was mandated to vacate his seat.
The apex court upheld the previous judgments of both the federal high court where the case originated from and the court of appeal which has in its earlier judgments held that the lawmaker should vacate his seat in line with s.68 of the constitution.