The Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie-led Rivers State House of Assembly has declared the seats of 25 members of the House, who are loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, vacant.
Speaker Ehie made the declaration on Wednesday morning at a plenary of the House, saying the action was in line with Section 109 (1) (g) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
The affected 25 members were part of the 27 lawmakers, who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday.
The Ehie-led lawmakers, who are loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, are currently sitting inside the Government House, Port Harcourt, where they are expected to receive the state’s 2024 budget proposal from the governor.
LEADERSHIP reports that an alternate facility had been provided by Governor Fubara for members of the beleaguered State House of Assembly to sit and deliberate under the speakership of Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie, following the arsonists’ attack on the Rivers State House of Assembly complex on the night of Sunday October 29, 2023, in the wake of impeachment plot against the state governor by lawmakers loyal to Wike.